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VERTICAL SECTION, 

Showing (conjecturally) Milton's cosmography, — the Empyreal Heavens, our Starry 

Universe, Hell, and Chaos. See Preface. 



MILTON'S 



PARADISE LOST, 



BOOKS I. AND II, 



WITH INTRODUCTION, NOTES, AND DIAGRAMS, 
BY 

HOMER B. SPRAGUE, M.A., Ph.D., 

HEAD-MASTER OF THE GIRLS* HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON; AND FORMERLY PRINCIPAL 

OF THE ADELPHI ACADEMY, BROOKLYN, AND PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC 

AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



1 *7 



BOSTON: 
GINN AND HEATH, 

13 Tkemont Place. 

1879. 



Djo. ../.U/J.-.A 






Tf^^Vl 



Copyright, 1879, 
By Ginn and Heath. 



University Press: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



TO 

THE TEACHERS AND STUDENTS OF OUR ENGLISH 
LITERATURE, 

THIS BOOK IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED 

BY 

THEIR FRIEND AND FELLOW-WORKER, 

THE EDITOR. 



PREFACE 



This little book, the outgrowth of teaching, is designed to 
meet the wants of students. Among the points of difference 
between it and similar editions, it includes some of the best 
results of recent investigation, and it omits certain passages 
that jar on the ^ reverence due to youth.' With very slight 
exceptions the text is Masson's.* 

The notes may seem at first sight too numerous ; but many 
of them are intended for teachers, and examination will show 
that they are calculated to stimulate rather than supersede 
thought. 

The introductory matter should be read carefully before 
beginning the critical study. 



The diagrams will assist in understanding Milton's cos- 
mography. Probably no one of them will be found entirely 
satisfactory ; but if they awaken the student's interest, if they 
aid his imagination, and if they lead him to a closer study 
of the poem, the object of introducing them will have been 
gained. Some explanation of the two which stand respec- 

* In regard to the use of capital letters, the authority of Wilson on Punctu- 
ation has generally been followed. 



vi PREFACE, 

tively at the beginning and at the end may here be appro- 
priate. 

Milton recognizes the sphere as the normal shape of worlds. 
And so, in the * void profound ' of infinite space, during the 
cycles of past eternity, lay that vast aggregation of matter which 
constituted the luminous Empyreal Heavens above and the 
black abysses of Chaos beneath. He tells us that heaven is 

like earth. 

" What if earth 

Be hut the shadow of heaven, and things therein 

Each to other like, more than on earth is thoughts" 

To use Brooke's eloquent description in his incomparable 
Milton Primer J " Heaven is on high, indefinitely extended, 
and walled towards Chaos with a crystal wall having opal 
towers and sapphire battlements. In the wall a vast gate 
opens on Chaos, and from it runs a broad and ample road, 
* powdered with stars,' whose dust is gold, to the throne of 
God. The throne is in the midst of Heaven, high on the 
sacred hill, lost in ineffable light. . . . Around the hill is 
the vast plain clothed with flowers, watered by living streams 
among the trees of life, where on great days the angelic assem- 
bly meets ; and nearer to the hill is the pavement like a sea of 
jasper. Beyond are vast regions, where are the blissful bowers 
of 'amarantine shade, fountain, or spring,' . . . and among 
them the archangels have their royal seats built as Satan's 
was, far blazing on a hill, of diamond quarries and of golden 
rocks." * 

Like those of earth, ' this continent of spacious heaven ' has 
its ocean. That ocean is Chaos. It lies beside and beneath 

* Milton Primer, pp. 84, 85, by Stopfovd A. Brooke (D. Appleton & Go's 
Series of Classical Writers). 



PREFACE. vii 

heaven, whose shining cliffs and walls rise sheer out of the 
dark unfathomable depths. It is not homogeneous. It appar- 
ently has strata. In it there is at least one 'vast vacuity.' 
Through it Satan, ' with difficulty and labor hard,' 

' O'er bog or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 
With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way, 
And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies.' 

Yet it is an ocean — 

* Outrageous as a sea, dark, wasteful, wild. 
Up from the bottom turned by furious winds, 
And surging waves as mountains, to assault 
Heaven's highth, and with the centre mix the pole.* 

Clearly, if heaven has sharp, rigid outlines like the moon, 
chaos has a shifting, tumultuous surface like the sun. 

Deep in this tremendous abyss lies Hell, perhaps near the 
centre, possibly at the nadir ; distant, at any rate, from the 
light of God by three times the radius of our starry universe."^ 
In the centre of hell is the lake of fire, a 'boiling ocean.' 
Three vast regions of horror lie in concentric zones around 
it. First, a belt of fiery volcanic soil ; then, a moist region, 
through which, like an ocean stream, 

" Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 
Her watery labyrinth ; " 

next, a frozen continent with 

' A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog ; ' 

* We need not suppose a mathematical exactness. "The moment you 
furnish Imagination with a yardstick, she abdicates in favor of her statis- 
tical poor-relation Commonplace." — Lowell on Milton {Among My Books, 
2d series). 



viii PREFACE. 

and beyond all, 

" At last appear 
Hell bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof," 

and in them the ninefold gates. 

" Our World, as Milton calls it, the whole solar system and 
the stars, is linked to Heaven and to Hell [to the latter by the 
bridge. Par. Lost, II. 1028], and in Chaos. It is a vast hollow- 
sphere, hung at its zenith by a golden chain from the Empy- 
rean. ... It is beaten by the winds of Chaos, and has only 
[sic] light on that side of it which is turned to Heaven. At 
its very zenith a bright sea flows as of liquid pearl, from which 
a mighty structure of stairs leads up to Heaven's gate. Over 
against the stairs a passage down to the earth opens into the 
hollow sphere." * 

From the gifted critic just quoted, we may cite a paragraph 
upon Milton's diction and rhythm. " The Style is always 
great. On the whole it is the greatest in the whole range 
of English poetry ; so great that when once we have come 
to know and honor and love it, it so subdues the judgment 
tliat the judgment can with difficulty do its work with tem- 
perance. . . . No style, when one has lived in it, is so 
spacious and so majestic a place to walk in. . . . Fulness 
of sound, weight of march, compactness of finish, fitness of 
words to things, fitness of pauses to thought, a strong grasp 
of tlie main idea while other ideas play round it, power of 
digression without loss of the power to return, equality of 
power over vast spaces of imagination, sustained splendor when 
he soars 

* With plume so strong, so equal and so soft,* 
* Bi-onke's Milton Priimr, p. 86. 



PREFACE. ix 

a majesty in the conduct of thought, and a music in the 
majesty which fills it with solemn beauty, — belong one and 
all to the style ; and it gains its highest influence on us, and 
fulfils the ultimate need of a grand style in being the easy and 
necessary expression of the very character and nature of the 
man." * 



The preparation of this little volume has been a continual 
joy, and the labor bestowed has daily brought its own exceed- 
ing great reward. Step by step, as the view was nearer, the 
poem has grown grander, and Milton's genius has seemed more 
angelic. May this slight contribution lead at least a few others 
to love more warmly this kingliest of English souls, and to 
study more intelligently and more reverently this loftiest work 
of the human imagination. 

Girls' High School, Boston, 
October 1, 1879. 



* Brooke's Milton Primer^ pp. 83, 84. Compare this with the fine passage 
on Milton's style and method in Lowell's Among My Books, 2d series, 
pp. 284-299. As to Milton's character, see the essays in J. R. Seeley's Roman 
rtn2)ericdism, etc. For many interesting and suggestive remarks on the poem, 
see Himes's Study of Paradise Lost (Lippincott, 1878). 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

Dedication iii 

Preface v 

Contents xi 

Introduction . . xiii-xxxii 

Masson's Critical Comments xiii-xxi 

Himes's " " xxi-xxx 

Quarterly Keview's Critical Comments . . . xxx, xxxi 
De Quincey's " "... xxxi, xxxii 

Lowell's " " .... xxxii 

Suggestions to Teachers xxxiii 

Milton's Preface on the Verse 1-3 

Paradise Lost. Book 1 5-57 

" " Book II 59-108 

INDEX 109 



INTRODUCTION. 



[From the Introduction to Masson's Milton's Poetical WorJcs.'] 

Paradise Lost is an epic. But it is not, like the Iliad or the 
JEneid, a national epic ; nor is it an epic after any other of the 
known types. It is an epic of the whole human species — an epic 
of our entire planet, or indeed of the entire astronomical universe. 
The title of the poem, though perhaps the best that could have been 
chosen, hardly indicates beforehand the full extent of the theme. 
Nor are the opening lines sufficiently descriptive of what is to fol- 
low. According to them, the song is to be 

" Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste 
Brought Death into the world and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden." 

This is a true description, for the whole story bears on this point. 
But it is the vast comprehension of the story, both in space and 
time, as leading to this point, that makes it unique among epics, 
and entitles Milton to speak of it as involving 

" Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme." 

It is, in short, a poetical representation, on the authority of hints 
from the Book of Genesis and other parts of the Bible, of the his- 
torical connection between Human Time and Aboriginal or Eternal 
Infinity, or between our created World and the immeasurable and 
inconceivable Universe of Pre-human Existence. So far as our 
World is concerned, the poem starts from that moment when our 
newly-created Earth, with all the newly-created starry depths about 
it, had as yet but two human beings upon it. These consequently 
are, on this side of the pre-supposed Infinite Eternity, the main per- 
sons of the epic. But we are carried hack into this pre-supposed 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

Infinite Eternity ; and tbe grand purpose of the poem is to connect, 
by a stupendous imagination, certain events or courses of the incon- 
ceivable history that had been unfolding itself there with the first 
fortunes of that new azure World which is familiar to us, and more 
particularly with the first fortunes of that favored ball at the centre 
whereon those two human creatures walked. Now the person of 
the epic, through the narration of whose acts this connection is 
established, is Satan. He, as all critics have perceived, and in a 
wider sense than most of them have perceived, is the real hero 
of the poem. He and his actions are the link between that new 
World of Man, the infancy of which we behold in the poem, and 
that boundless antecedent Universe of Pre-human existence which 
the poem assumes. For he was a native of that pre-human uni- 
verse — one of its greatest and most conspicuous natives ; and what 
we follow in the poem, when its story is taken chronologically, is 
the life of this great being, from the time of his yet unimpaired 
primacy or archangelship among the Celestials, on to that time 
when, in pursuit of a scheme of revenge, he flings himself into 
the new experimental World, tries the strength of the new race at 
its fountain-head, and, by success in his attempt, vitiates Man's 
portion of space to his own nature and wins possession of it for 
a season. The attention of the reader is particularly requested to 
the following remarks and diagrams.* The diagrams are not mere 
illustrations of what Milton may have conceived in his scheme of 
the poem. They are actually what he did conceive, and most 
tenaciously keep before his mind from first to last ; and, unless 
they are thoroughly grasped, the poem will not be understood as 
a whole, and many particular portions of it will be misinterpreted. 
Aboriginally, or in primeval Eternity, before the creation of our 
Earth or the Starry Universe to which it belongs, universal space is 
to be considered, according to the requisites of the poem, not as con- 
taining stars or starry systems at all, but as a sphere of infinite 
radius — the phrase is, of course, self-contradictory, but it is neces- 
sary — divided into two hemispheres. The upper of these two 
hemispheres of primeval Infinity is Heaven, or the Empyrean — a 
boundless unimaginable region of Light, Freedom, Happiness, and 

* We give but one of Masson's diagrams, the last of his three. His first 
is simply a circle, with a diameter dra\vn horizontally through it. The second 
is the same circle, with its diameter, and with an antarctic region like the so- 
called * south frigirl zone ' of the geogi-aphies. — Ed. 



1 



INTRODUCTION. xv 

Glory, ia the midst whereof God, though omnipresent, has His im- 
mediate and visible dwelling. He is here surrounded by a vast 
population of beings, called " the Angels," or " Sons of God," who 
draw near to His throne in worship, derive thence their nurture and 
their delight, and yet live dispersed through all the ranges and 
recesses of the region, leading severally their mighty lives and per- 
forming the behests of Deity, but organized into companies, orders, 
and hierarchies. Milton is careful to explain that all that he says 
of Heaven is said symbolically, and in order to make conceivable 
by the human imagination what in its own nature is inconceivable ; 
but, this being explained, he is bold enough in his use of terrestrial 
analogies. Round the immediate throne of Deity, indeed, there is 
kept a blazing mist of vagueness, which words are hardly permitted 
to pierce, though the angels are represented as from time to time 
assembling within it, beholding the Divine Presence and hearing the 
Divine Voice. But Heaven at large, or portions of it, are figured 
as tracts of a celestial Earth, with plain, hill, and valley, whereon 
the myriads of the Sons of God expatiate, in their two orders of 
Seraphim and Cherubim, and in their descending ranks as Arch- 
angels or Chiefs, Princes of various degrees, and individual Powers 
and Intelligences. Certain differences, however, are implied as dis- 
tinguishing these Celestials from the subsequent race of Mankind. 
As they are of infinitely greater prowess, immortal, and of more 
purely spiritual nature, so their ways even of physical existence and 
action transcend all that is within human experience. Their forms 
are dilatable or contractible at pleasure ; they move with incredible 
swiftness ; and, as they are not subject to any law of gravitation, 
their motions, though ordinarily represented as horizontal over the 
Heavenly ground, may as well be vertical or in any other direction, 
and their aggregations need not, like those of men, be in squares, 
oblongs, or other plane figures, but may be in cubes, or other rec- 
tangular or oblique solids, or in spherical masses. These and vari- 
ous other particulars are to be kept in mind concerning Heaven and 
its pristine inhabitants*. As respects the other half or hemisphere of 
the primeval Infinity, though it too is inconceivable in its nature, 
and has to be described by words which are at best symbolical, less 
needs be said. For it is Chaos or the Uninhabited — a huge limit- 
less ocean, abyss, or quagmire, of universal darkness and lifelessness, 
wherein are jumbled in blustering confusion the elements of all 
matter, or rather the crude embryons of all the elements, ere as yet 



xvi INTRODUCTION. 

they are distinguishable. There is no light there, nor propen;t, 
Earth, Water, Air, or Fire, but only a vast pulp or welter of un- 
formed matter, in which all these lie tempestuously intermixed. 
Though the presence of Deity is there potentially too, it is still, as 
it were, actually retracted thence, as from a realm unorganized and 
left to Night and Anarchy ; nor do any of the angels wing down into 
its repulsive obscurities. The crystal floor or wall of Heaven divides 
them from it ; underneath which, and unvisited of light, save what 
may glimmer through upon its nearer strata, it howls and rages and 
stagnates eternally. 

Such is, and has been, the constitution of the Universal Infin- 
itude, from ages immemorial in the angelic reckoning. But lo ! at 
last a day in the annals of Heaven when the grand monotony of 
existence hitherto is disturbed and broken. On a day — " such a 
day as Heaven's great year brings forth " (V. 582, 583) — all the 
Empyreal host of Angels, called by imperial summons from all 
the ends of Heaven, assemble innumerably before the throne of the 
Almighty ; beside whom, imbosomed in bliss, sat the Divine Son. 
They had come to hear this divine decree : — 

" Hear, all ye Angels, Progeny of Light, 
Thrones, Dominations, Princedoms, Virtues, Powers, 
Hear my decree which unrevoked shaU stand ! 
This day I have begot whom I declare 
My only Son, and on this holy hill 
Him have anointed, whom ye now behold 
At my right hand. Your Head I him appoint,- 
And by myself have sworn to him shall bow 
All knees in Heaven, and shall confess him Lord." 

With joy and obedience is this decree received throughout the 
hierarchies, save in one quarter. One of the first of the Archangels 
in Heaven, if not the very first, — the coequal of Michael, Gabriel, 
and Raphael, if not their superior, — is the Archangel known after- 
wards (for his first name in Heaven is lost) as Satan or Lucifer. In 
him the effect of the decree is rage, envy, pride, the resolution to 
rebel. He conspires with his next subordinate, known afterwards 
as Beelzebub ; and there is formed by them that fiiction in Heaven 
which includes at length one third of the entire Heavenly host. 
Then ensue the wars in Heaven — Michael and the loyal Angels 
warring against Satan and the rebel Angels, so that for two days 



1 



INTRODUCTION. xvii 

/l; EmpjTean is in uproar. But on the third day the Messiah 
himself rides forth in his chariot of power, and armed with ten 
thousand thunders. Right on he drives, in his sole might, through 
the rebel ranks, till they are trampled and huddled, in one indis- 
criminate flock, incapable of resistance, before him and his fires. 
But his purpose is not utterly to destroy tbem, — only to expel them 
from Heaven. Underneath their feet, accordingly, the crystal wall 
or floor of Heaven opens wide, rolling inwards, and disclosing a 
spacious gap into the dark Abyss or Chaos, Horror-struck they 
start back ; but worse urges them behind. Headlong they fling 
themselves down, eternal wrath burning after them, and driving 
them stiU down, down, through Chaos, to the place prepared for 
them. 

The place prepared for them ! Yes, for now there is a modifica- 
tion in the map of Universal Space to suit the changed condition of, 
the Universe. At the bottom of what has hitherto been Chaos 
there is now marked out a kind of Antarctic region, distinct from 
the body of Chaos proper. This is Hell — a vast region of fire, 
sulphurous lake, plain, and mountain, and of all forms of fiery and 
icy torment. It is into this nethermost and dungeon-like portion 
of space that the Fallen Angels are thrust. For nine days and 
nights they have been falling through Chaos, or rather being 
driven through Chaos by the Messiah's pursuing thunders, before 
they reach this new home destined for them (VI. 871). When 
they do reach if, the roof closes over them and shuts them in. 
Meanwhile the Messiah has returned into highest Heaven, and there 
is rejoicing over the expulsion of the damned. 

For the moment, therefore, there are three divisions of Universal 
Space, — Heaven, Chaos, and Hell. Almost immediately, how- 
ever, there is a fourth. Not only have the expelled Angels been nine 
days and nights in falling through Chaos to reach Hell ; but after 
they have reached Hell and it has closed over them, they lie for 
another period of nine days and nights (I. 50-53) stupefied and 
bewildered in the fiery gulf. It is during this second nine days that 
there takes place a great event, which farther modifies the map of 
Infinitude. Long had there been talk in Heaven of a new race of 
beings to be created at some time by the Almighty, inferior in some 
respects to the Angels, but in the history of whom and of God's 
dealings with them there was to be a display of the divine power 
and love which even the Angels might contemplate with wonder. 



xviii INTRODUCTION. 

The time for the creation of this new race of beings has now arrived. 
Scarcely have the rebel Angels been enclosed in Hell, and Chaos 
has recovered from the turmoil of the descent of such a rout through 
its depths, when the Paternal Deity, addressing the Son, tells hiiu 
that in order to repair the loss caused to Heaven, the predetermined 
creation of Man and of the World of Man shall now take effect. It 
is for the Son to execute the will of the Father. Straightway he 
goes forth on his creating errand. The everlasting gates of Heaven 
open wide to let him pass forth ; and, clothed with majesty, and 
accompanied with thousands of Seraphim and Cherubim, anxious 
to behold the great work to be done, he does pass forth — far into 
that very Chaos through which the Rebel Angels have so recently 
I'allen, and which now intervenes between Heaven and Hell. At 
length he stays his fervid wheels, and, taking the golden compasses 
in his hands, centres one point of them where he stands and turns 
the other through the obscure profundity around (VII. 224-231). 
Thus are marked out, or cut out, through the body of Chaos, the 
limits of the new Universe of Man — that Starry Universe which 
to us seems measureless and the same as Infinity itself, but which is 
really only a beautiful azure spheje or drop, insulated in Chaos, and 
hung at its topmost point or zenith from the Empyrean. But though 
the limits of the new experimental Creation are thus at once marked 
out, the completion of the Creation is a work of Six Days (VII. 
242-550). On the last of these, to crown the work, the happy Earth 
receives its first human pair — the appointed lords of the entire 
new Creation, surveying it with newly-awakened gaze from the 
Paradise where they are placed, and where they have received the 
one sole command that is to try their allegiance. And so, resting 
from his labors, and beholding all that he had made, that it was 
good, the Messiah returned to his Father, reascending through the 
golden gates which were now just over the zenith of the new World, 
and were its point of suspension from the Empyrean Heaven ; and 
tlie Seventh Day or Sabbath was spent in songs of praise by all the 
Heavenly hosts over the finished work, and in contemplation of it 
as it hung beneath them, 

" another Heaven 

From Heaven -gate not far, founded in view 

On the clear hyaline." 

And now, accordingly, this was the diagram of the Universal In- 
finitude: — 



INTRODUCTION, 



XIX 



mii^:vi:m 



OR 



THE EMFYHEAM 



jmZZ ^ I7>OOJl OFJlKAVEy, 



CHAOS. 




ci-i/\as. 



CHAQS- 



HHI^X.. 



There are the three regions of Heaven, Chaos, and Hell, as before ; 
but there is also now a fourth region, hung drop-like into Chaos by 
an attachment to Heaven at the north pole or zenith. This is the 
New World, or the Starry Universe — all that Universe of orbs 
and galaxies which man's vision can reach by utmost power of tele- 
scope, and which even to his imagination is illimitable. And yet 
as to the proportions of this world to some part of tbe total map 
Milton dares to be exact. The distance from its nadir or lowest 
l>oint to the upper boss of Hell is exactly equal to its own radius ; 
or, in other words, the distance of Hell-gate from Heaven-gate is 
exactly three semidiameters of the Human or Starry Universe 
(1. 73, 74). 

Meanwhile, just as this final and stupendous modification of the 
map of Infinitude has been accomplished, Satan and his rebel ad- 
herents in Hell begin to recover from their stupor — Satan the first, 
and the others at his call. There ensue Satan's first speech to them, 
their first surveys of their new domain, their building of their 



XX INTRODUCTION. 

palace of Pandemonium, and their deliberations there in full coun- 
cil as to their future policy. Between Moloch's advice for a renewal 
of open war with Heaven, and Belial's and Mammon's counsels, 
which recommend acquiescence in their new circumstances and a 
patient effort to make the best of them, Beelzebub insinuates the 
proposal, which is really Satan's and which is ultimately carried. 
It is that there should be an excursion from Hell back through 
Chaos, to ascertain whether that new Universe, with a new race of 
beings in it, of which there had been so much talk in Heaven, and 
which there was reason to think might come into existence about 
this time, had come into existence. If it had, might not means be 
found to vitiate this new Universe and the favored race that was to 
possess it, and to drag them down to the level of Hell itself ? . . . 

Satan's counsel having been adopted, it is Satan himself that ad- 
ventures the perilous expedition up through Chaos in quest of the 
new Universe. . . . He emerges into the hideous Chaos overhead. 
His journey up through it is arduous. Climbing, swimming, wad- 
ing, flying, through the boggy consistency — now falling plumb- 
down thousands of fathoms, again carried upwards by a gust or 
explosion — he reaches at length, about midway in his journey, the 
central throne and pavilion where Chaos personified and Night 
have their government. . . . After much farther flying, tacking, and 
steering, he at last reaches the upper confines of Chaos, where its 
substance seems thinner, so that he can wing about more easily, and 
where a glimmering of the light from above begins also to appear. 
For a while in this calmer space he weighs his wings to behold at 
leisure (II. 1046) the sight that is breaking upon him. And what 
a sight ! 

" Far off the Empyreal Heaven extended wide 
In circuit, undetermined square or round, 
With opal towers and battlements adorned 
Of living sapphire — once his native seat ; 
And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 
This pendent World, in bigness as a star 
Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon." 

Care must be taken not to misinterpret this passage. . . . The 
" pendent World " which Satan here sees is not the Earth at all, but 
the entire Starry Universe, or Mundane System, hung dro]>-like by 
a golden touch from the Ejupyroan above it. In proportion to this 



INTRODUCTION. xxi 

Empyrean, at the distance whence Satan gazes, even the Starry- 
Universe pendent from it is but as a star of smallest magnitude on 
the edge of the fuU or crescent moon.* 



I 



[From Professor Himes's Study of Paradise Lost.'] 

Hell is said to be 

" As far removed from God and light of Heaven 
As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole." 

The direction of this extent is, of course, in accordance with popu- 
lar fancy and language, downward. The measuring-line is from the 
centre to the utmost limit of the Starry Universe. To one who has 
received, as had Milton, some idea through the telescope of the im- 
mense distance of the nearest stars, this unit of length will seem 
grand enough for the sublimity of the subject. Dante, Virgil, and 
Homer had supposed the place of punishment to be within the earth. 
Dante's Inferno consists of nine circles extending beyond the centre 
of the earth and increasing in horror towards the lowest, to which 
are consigned such arch-traitors as Lucifer, Judas Iscariot, Brutus, 
and Cassius. Homer and Virgil, to whom Milton took pains to 
conform as nearly as possible, recognized below the Empyrean three 
regions, one above the other and of equal height. The first was 
the Ethereal, extending from Heaven to Earth ; the second was 
Hades, of like depth ; the third and lowest was Tartarus, or the 
place of punishment, an equal distance below Hades. Homer, 
speaking of the location of 1 artarus, teaches that it extends " as far 
below Hades as the distance from Heaven to Earth." 

ToacTov evepd* 'AiSeco, o(rop ovpavos ecrr anb yairjs. 

(Iliad, VIII. 16.) 

Virgil, measuring from the surface of the Earth, and of course 
including Hades, says, " Then Tartarus itself sinks deep down and 
extends towards the shades twice as far as is the prospect upward to 
the ethereal throne of Heaven " — 

* In a foot-note on this passage Masson adds, "Heaven or the Empyrean 
being necessarily represented in onr diagram as of definite dimensions, instead 
of infinite or indefinite, the minuteness of this Mundane System in comparison 
has to be imagined.'* 



xxii INTRODUCTION. 

" Turn Tartanis ipse 
Bis patet in prseceps tan turn, tenditque sub umbras, 
Quantus ad setherium coeli suspectus Olympum." 

(^neid, VT. 577-9.) |l 

Milton's phraseology is equivalent to saying that the whole dis- f , 
tance from Heaven to Hell is three times as far as from Heaven to 
Earth ; for, because the centre of the Universe was anciently sup- 
posed to be occupied by the Earth, " from the centre to the pole " 
is the same unit of measure, from Heaven to Earth, used in the old 
poetic tradition. It is well to observe this agreement of the great 
epic poets, since, on account of their difference in manner of express- 
ing the same thing, a learned commentator, Bishop Newton, and 
others through him, have been led grievously astray. He says, " It 
is observable that Homer makes the seat of Hell as far beneath the 
deepest pit of Earth as the Heaven is above the Earth. Virgil 
makes it twice as far, and Milton thrice as far ; as if these three 
great poets had stretched their utmost genius and vied with each 
other in extending his idea of Hell farthest." A little reflection 
will convince any one that such petty artifices by his successors to 
outrival Homer would be worthy only of contempt, and that Virgil 
and Milton would have been the last in the world to suffer, or be 
guilty of, this irreverence to their great Master. But while observ- 
ing this beautiful deference to the Father of Epic Poetry, Milton, 
with his superior knowledge of the Earth as a mere point compared 
with the amplitude of the Starry Universe, was able to use this same 
measuring-line (from Heaven to Earth) in order to locate Hell, as he 
says in his Argument, " not in the centre (for Heaven and Earth 
may be supposed as not yet made, certainly not yet accursed), but 
in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos." 

The partial description of this place given in the first book may 
be regarded as the development of a few Scriptural phrases, such as 
"outer darkness " and " the lake that burns with fire and brim- 
stone." The darkness is called " utter " by Milton to distinguish it 
both in quality and place from " middle " or chaotic darkness, as 
further from heavenly light and more fearful. It is also called 
" darkness visible," which to those denizens of Hell 
" Serves only to discover sights of woe, 
Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 
And rest can never dwell, hope never comes." 

The Lake of Fire is a region of vast extent, and elsewhere called a 






INTRODUCTION. xxiii 

"boiling ocean" (II. 183). Words of the most terrible energy are 
employed to describe the fierceness and power of that furnace fire. 
It is " a fiery deluge fed with ever-burning sulphur ; " there are 
" floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fiLre," " fiery waves," 
" liquid fire," and '^ upper, nether, and surrounding fires." But as 
this is a lake, it must have a shore. The shore is described as dry 
land burning with " solid fire," — a broad belt of the fiercest vol- 
canic nature surrounding the "inflamed sea," as similar belts, though 
less in extent and power, gird our earthly oceans. There is a gradual 
shifting of the scene from the " burning marie " of this belt to the 
" burnt ground " at a distance from the lake, — a region parched and 
dry, but more tolerable to the fallen spirits. . . . 

In the first book there is a description of the central Lake of Fire, 
which, from its designation as a pool, or pit, and from various other 
expressions, may be regarded as sunken precipitously and far below 
the surrounding shore. It is literally and not extravagantly speak- 
ing, of oceanic extent. Into this pool the four rivers, Phlegethon, 
Acheron, Styx, and Cocytus, disgorge their baleful streams. Towards 
the sources of these rivers, which the imagination at once fixes in the 
direction of the four cardinal points, the angelic bands take up their 
" flying march." Their flight, swifter than the lightning-flash, bears 
them quickly over the vast spaces drained by the rivers and far into 
the wild territory beyond, over the second grand circle of Hell, to 
the slow and silent waters of Lethe. This stream ought, in order to 
preserve suitable proportions, to be like the " ocean stream " in ex- 
tent ; and the terms "flood," "ford," "sound," used to designate it, 
allow the supposition. The name " labyrinth " need not refer to 
any intricate windings of the stream, but may, as later (IX. 183), be 
descriptive of a simple circular shape. It can, therefore, be regarded 
as the third circle of Milton's Inferno. The words " frozen conti- 
nent," applied to what lies beyond, define the nature of that desolate, 
stormy, chilling border-land, which constitutes the fourth and last 
main division of the vast region. If these conclusions are just, the 
realm of evil is divided by concentric circles into four parts, con- 
signed respectively to the four elemental properties of ancient 
physics that in Chaos appear as four warring champions. Hot, Dry, 
Moist, and Cold. (See Professor Himes's diagram on next page.) 

The first, or central region, is distinguished for destructive heat ; 
the second, for desolating dryness ; the third, for a barren waste of 
water that will not relieve thirst ; the fourth, for stiffening cold. 



XXIV 



introduction: 

EAST. 




WEST. 

The four ctampions, here no longer struggling with one another, 
can bring in turn all their malignant force to bear upon the denizens 
of Hell. 

It must be kept in mind that Dante's Hell was entirely included 
within the Earth, while Milton's was not only larger than the Earth, 
but in horizontal extent wider than the diameter of the Starry Uni- 
verse, and in its depth, designated by the adjective " bottomless," 
absolutely infinite. It would seem like trifling if Milton, instead 
of producing only the most general features of this universe of 
death, had occupied himself with giving particular descriptions of 
small spaces and recording measurements in feet and inches. He 
has, however, made a map of the four grand divisions which is 
more vague and indefinite than Dante's of his nine circles only in 
the sense in which a map of a hemisphere is more vague and in- 
definite than one of a county. (See Professor Himes's diagram above.) 

Besides, Milton's division is upon a natural, while Dante's is upon 
an artificial basis. If it is asked why there should be nine circles 



INTRODUCTION. xxv 

and no more nor less, no better answer can be given than that nine 
is a favorite poetical number. There is no room for such a question 
with reference to Milton's arrangement. The four elemental prop- 
erties appear wherever matter appears ; and if in the World they 
combine harmoniously to produce comfort and life, while in Chaos 
they neutralize one another, why may they not in Hell serve sepa- 
rately and in turn the purpose of punishment ? Milton's adjust- 
ment, in giving Heat and Cold, out of respect to popular language, 
the position of extremes, is also natural and proper. 

The explorations of the four bands tended to dissipate any hope 
which the fallen spirits may have conceived of becoming inured to 
the fierce flames of their habitation so as not to feel this kind of 
torment. There is a region of ice to which those spirits are periodi- 
cally transported from their bed of fire, so that no length of endur- 
ance can accustom their essence to the tortures and remove the 
sensibility to pain. Caednion, the Anglo-Saxon monk-poet, who 
drew his inspiration from the same sacred source as Milton, and 
whom the latter is charged with imitating, also speaks of the 
fierce extremes of heat and cold which the devils in Hell are 
doomed to suffer : — 

" Then cometh ere dawn 
The eastern wind, 
Frost bitter-cold, 
Ever fire or dart; 
Some hard torment 
They must have." 

The means of torture in these regions of woe are many and varied. 
The tantalizing presence of the stream of Oblivion, the monstrous 
prodigies, the unnumbered forms of terror hiding in every cave and 
thicker shade, threatening from every mountain-top, intensify the 
despair of the bold discoverers : — 

" Thus roving on 
In confused march forlorn, the adventurous bands 
With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 
Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
No rest." 

Homer and Virgil both acquaint us with many forms of punish- 
ment in Tartarus, ^neas on his visit to the world of shades was 
not admitted within its gates, on the ground that no holy person is 



X XVI IN TROD UCTIOX. 

allowed to tread the accursed threshold. The Sibyl described to 
him some of the punishments within, but added at last, " Had I a 
hundred tongues and a hundred mouths, a voice of iron, 1 could 
not comprehend all the species of their crimes nor enumerate the 
names of all their punishments." Dante in his construction of the 
Inferno appears to strain his ingenuity in originating modes of tor- 
ture fur the wicked, beginnmg with the stinging of gadflies and 
ending in the lowest circle with the crunching of sinners between 
the teeth of the Emperor himself of the kingdom dolorous. Milton 
surpasses all his predecessors in judgment and taste in avoiding 
whatever is belittling, grotesque, or atrocious, and in being consist- 
ently great and sublime and awful. . . . 

Many features in the delineation of Hell-gates are evidently 
adapted from Virgil's description of the gates of Tartarus. Milton's 
gates are thrice threefold, — the inner folds being of brass, the middle 
of iron, and the outer of rock. Masson imagines the gates to be at 
the highest point of the concave roof of Hell ; but here he is plainly 
in error. They are in the wall forming the circumference, and not 
in the roof at all. It is true that Satan soared towards the concave 
roof, but after the broad circle of Lethe had been crossed he de- 
scended again before coming to the gates. How could the stride of 
Death have shaken Hell had he been in the air and not on the 
ground ? All the language implies that the gates stood in a perpen- 
dicular and did not lie in a horizontal wall. . . . 

Through the gates thrown open by sin, Satan passes out into 
Chaos. In this grand division of the Universe there is an absence 
of that creative power which made Hell a place of punishment 
and Heaven a place of bliss. In Chaos matter is in its primitive 
condition, without the impress of Divine law and order. The ele- 
mental properties, instead of entering into their combinations and 
forming land, or sea, or air, or fire, are in a state of isolation and 
force and war. It is a region presided over by Chaos, Chance, 
and Night, and contains that confusion, uncertainty, and darkness 
appropriate to them. . . . Professor Masson makes a very natural 
oversight in the location of the throne and court of the Anarch 
of the Aln'ss, saying of Satan on his voyage, *' He reaches at 
length, about viiduxiy in his journey, the central throne and pa- 
vilion where Chaos personiHed and Niglit have their government. ' 
This court, the most noisy and tumultuous portion of Chaos, is 
not, as we would anticii)ate, estaljlished in the interior, but on the 



INTRODUCTION, 



XXVll 




XX vin INTROD UCTION. 

frontier, in order more easily to defend his possessions against fur- 
ther encroachments. The reason here given for such a h:)cation of 
the throne would seem sufficient, if the fact were established upon 
an independent basis, but scarcely of importance enough in itself to 
warrant a departure from so pronounced a rule as that requiring the 
seat of government in an ideal realm to be in the interior. Why, 
then, does the poet so expressly put the dark Pavilion of Chaos and 
old Night so near the light of Heaven ? Is it not in obscure allu- 
sion to the very popular notion that the darkest hour is just before 
the dawn '? The properties of Night as well as of Confusion must 
appear in a realm of Chaos and Night. 

The gates of Hell, from which Satan began his flight over the 
vast Abrupt, are below the Empyrean three semi-diameters of the 
Mundane Universe. " God and light of Heaven " are both sup- 
posed to be withdrawn from Chaos, but they are coextensive with 
the Empyrean. Three plains, one above the other and separated by 
the constant unit of measure, the distance " from the centre to the 
utmost pole," are recognizable in this infinite region of Chaos. The 
lowest plane we will call that of Tartarus, the middle one that of 
Hades, and the third that of Elysium. ... As Satan issued from Hell- 
gates, his course was at first upward, until he reached the plain of 
Hades ; then to the right an indefinite distance, until he arrived 
at the Pavilion of Chaos ; then obliquely upward again, as along 
the slant height of a Pyramid, to the plane of Elysium, where he 
first discovered a glimmer of Heavenly light ; and then directly 
to the right a second time, until he stood upon the nearest boss 
of the wall of our Universe. (See Professor Himes's diagram on 
page xix.) 



[Resemblance of Pandemonium to the Pantheon. From Himes's 

Study of Paradise Lost.'] 

With reference to the word Pandemonium, Masson remarks that 
" some thmk Milton the inventor of it, formed on the analogy 
of the Pantheon." Much more than that : the infernal Capitol 
itself is almost the exact transcript of the Roman Pantheon, or 
rather, perhaps, we ought to say that according to Milton's con- 
ception the former is the archetype after which the latter was 
made. Standing at a little distance, the fallen spirits could see it 



INTRODUCTION. xxix 

"Built like a temple, where pilasters round 
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 
With golden architrave ; nor did there want 
Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 
The roof was fretted gold." 
Almost every word is suggestive of the Pantheon, which was a 
tcmjAe, of a round shape, and encircled with two rows of 'pilasters. 
Doric pillars are by Milton substituted for Corinthian as being 
more chaste and better suited for a hall of council The archi- 
trave, the cornice, the frieze, the statuary, here called bossy sculp- 
tures, are all prominent objects in the earthly temple of the gods 
as in their Plutonian Capitol. As the roof of Pandemonium is of 
fretted gold, so that of the Pantheon was formerly covered with 
plates of gilded bronze, until the latter were carried away by spoilers 
to Constantinople. 

Upon a nearer approach and entrance to this infernal structure, 
the likeness to its earthly copy is discovered in a still greater 
number of particulars. 

" The ascending pile 
Stood fixed her stately highth ; and straight the doors, 
Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 
Within, her ample spaces o'er the smooth 
And level pavement : from the arched roof, 
Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 
Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 
With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 
As from a sky." 

The extraordinary air of majesty of the exterior impresses all 
who behold the Pantheon. The doors in both archetype and copy 
were of bronze. The earthly structure, being by far the largest of 
ancient times, has its ample sptaces within ; though these are narrow 
in comparison with that spacious hall, " like a covered field," con- 
structed by Mulciber. The wonderful pavement and the vaulted 
roof lined with silver likewise used to engage the attention of 
visitors to the Pantheon, but the circular opening of twenty-six 
feet in diameter in the centre of the roof, lighting the interior 
with magical eflect directly from the shy, is the most astonishing 
of all. There was no bright sky in that world of nether dark- 
ness, and the want of light from this source was supplied by the 
circular rows of burning cressets. 



XXX IN TROD UCTION. 

Since every one of the dozen or more features mentioned in 
describing Pandemonium coincides with a similar prominent 
feature in the Pantheon, it seems surprising that none of Mil- 
ton's admirers who have seen the Pantheon appear to have recog- 
nized the likeness of the two structures. Besides, it was to be 
anticipated that a structure erected by the devils in Hell, and one 
erected by men under their influence on Earth, would resemble 
each other. The propriety of the poet's course is manifest, and 
well supported by analogy. As the temple on Mount Moriah, 
dedicated to the only true God, was built under Divine instruc- 
tion according to the pattern of things in Heaven, would not the 
temple devoted to all the demons be built by men under their 
inspiration after the pattern of things in Hell V It is the more 
essential to observe such a fact because it helps to establish a very 
important principle in the interpretation of the poem, viz., that 
Milton usually, if not always, has a substantial basis for his im- 
agination to act upon. He describes so confidently because he 
describes wliat he has seen. (See the picture of the Pantheon on 
another page.) 



[From a Critique in the Quarterly Review, reprinted in Littell's 
Living Age, March 10, 1877, entitled A French Critic (Edmond 
Scherer) on Milton.] 

Milton has always the strong, sure touch of the master. His 
power both of diction and of rhythm is unsurpassable, and it is char- 
acterized by being always present, not depending on an access of 
emotion, not intermittent, but, like the grace of Raphael, working 
in its possessor like a constant gift of nature. Milton's style has 
the same propriety and soundness in presenting plain matters as in 
the comparatively smooth task for a poet of presenting grand ones. 
His rhythm is as admirable where, as in the line, 

' And Tiresias and Phineus prophets old,' 
it is unusual, as in such lines as, 

' With dreadful faces thronged and fiery arms,' 
where it is simplest. And what high praise this is, we may best 
appreciate by considering the ever-recurring failure, both in rhythm 
and in diction, which we find in the so-called Miltonic verse of 



INTRODUCTION. xxxi 

Thomson, Cowper, Wordsworth. What leagues of lumbering 
movement ! What desperate endeavors, as in Wordsworth's 

' And at the Hoop alighted, famous inn,' 
to render a platitude endurable by making it pompous ! Shake- 
speare himself, divine as are his gifts, has not, of the marks of 
the master, this one — perfect sureness of style. Alone of English 
poets, alone in English art, Milton has it ; he is our great artist in 
style, our one first-rate master in the grand style. He is as truly a 
master in this style as the great Greeks are, or Virgil, or Dante. 
The number of such masters is so limited that a man acquires a 
world-rank in poetry and art, instead of a mere local rank, by being 
counted to them. But Milton's importance to us Englishmen, by 
virtue of this distinction of his, is incalculable. The charm of a 
master's unfailing touch in diction and in rhythm, no one, after all, 
can feel so profoundly as his own countrymen. Invention, Y)lan, 
wit, pathos, thought, — all of them are in great measure capable of 
being detached from the original work itself, and of being exported 
for admiration abroad. Diction and rhythm are not. . . . 

For the English artist in any branch, if he is a true artist, the 
study of Milton may well have an indescribable attraction. It gives 
him lessons which nowhere else from an Englishman's work can he 
obtain, and feeds a sense which English literature, in general, seems 
too much, bent on disappointing and baffling. And this sense is yet 
so deep-seated in human nature — this sense of style — that prob- 
ably not for artists alone, but for all intelligent Englishmen who 
read him, its gratification by Milton's poetry is a large, though often 
not fully recognized part of his charm, and a very wholesome and 
fruitful one. 



[From De Quincey's Milton vs. Southeij and Landor.'] 

Angelic was the ear of Milton. Many are his frima facie anom- 
alous lines. Many are the suspicious lines which I have seen many 
a critic poring into with eyes made up for mischief, yet with a mis- 
giving that all was not quite safe, very much like an old raven look- 
ing down on a marrow-bone. In fact, such is the metrical skill of 
the man, and such the perfection of his metrical sensibility, that, on 
any attempt to take liberties with a passage of his, you feel as when 
coming in a forest upon what seems a dead lion ; perhaps he may 



xxxii INTRODUCTION. 

not be dead, but only sleeping ! nay, perhaps he may not be sleep- 
ing, but only shamming ! You have a jealousy, as to Milton, even 
in the most flagrant case of almost palpable error, that, after all, 
there may be a plot in it ! 



[From Lowell's Among My Books, Vol. II.] 

The strain heard in the " Nativity Ode," in " The Solemn Music," 
and in " Lycidas," is of a higher mood, as regards metrical construc- 
tion, than anything that had thrilled the English ear before ; giving 
no uncertain augury of him who was to show what sonorous metal 
lay silent till he touched the keys in the epical organ-pipes of our 
various language that have never since felt the strain of such pre- 
vailing breath. 



PAEADISE LOST. 



SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHEES. 



To insure systematic and thorough treatment, something like the 
following may be required of pupils in class exercises : — 

1. Read aloud, as well as you can, or repeat from memory, the passage 
assigned. 

2. Translate into your own words all parts of the passage. 

3. Explain any peculiarities, obscurities, or uncommon use of language. 

4. What is the object of the author in the passage as a whole ? Is 
this object relevant to his general purpose in the composition ? Is the 
passage needful ? or superfluous ? 

5. What particular thoughts or topics make up the passage ? Are the 
particulars well selected ? well arranged ? sufficient ? consistent with 
what he states elsewhere ? 

(6. Is the language characterized by grammatical purity or coiTect- 
ness ? by clearness or perspicuity ? by force or energy ? by elegance or 
beauty ?) 

(7. What "figures of speech" are found? Is the author happy in 
his use of figurative language ?) 

(8. What of the poetical feet ? verse ? csesura ? stanza ? harmony ?) 

9. Point out any other merits or defects (anything else that is "note- 
worthy as regards originality, insight, vividness, sublimity, grace, beauty, 
wit, wisdom, humor, pathos, logical force, principles illustrated, etc.). 



MILTON'S PREFACE, 



THE VERSE. 



The measure is English heroic verse without rime, as that 
of Homer in Greek, and of Virgil in Latin ; rime being no 
necessary adjunct or true ornament of poem or good verse, in 
longer works especially, but the invention of a barbarous age to 
set off wretched matter and lame metre ; graced indeed since by 
the use of some famous modern poets, carried away by custom, but 
much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint to express 
many things otherwise, and for the most part worse, than else 
they would have expressed them. Not without cause, therefore, 
some, both Italian and Spanish poets of prime note, have re- 
jected rime, both in longer and shorter works, as have also long 
since our best English tragedies, as a thing of itself, to all ju- 

The Verse. Most of the copies of the first edition (published in 1667) 
did not contain this preface from the hand of the author. But in 1668 
it was inserted in those which remained to be bound. There was added 
a statement by the printer as follows: — ''Courteous Reader: There 
was no Argument at first intended to the book ; but for the satis- 
faction of many that have desired it, I have procured it, and withal 
that which stumbled many others, why the poem rhymes not." — 
Our best English tragedies. Those of Shakespeare ? In Phillips's The- 
atrum Poetarum, we are supposed to have Milton's judgment of Shake- 
speare's tragedies ; for Phillips was Milton's nephew and pupil, and 
his book bears seeming traces of Milton's hand. The language is, *' In 
tragedy never any expressed a more lofty and tragic height ; never 
any represented Nature more purely to the life." — The invention of a 
barbarous age to set off wretched matter and lame metre, etc. In 
Roger Ascham's Schole-Master (1571), there is a passage which re- 

1 



2 THE VERSE. 

dicious ears, trivial and of no true musical delight ; which con- 
sists only in apt numbers, fit quantity of syllables, and the sense 
variously drawn out from one verse into another ; not in the 
jinghng sound of like endings, a fault avoided by the learned 
ancients both in poetry and all good oratory. This neglect, 

niarkably coincides with this preface of Milton's. He stigmatizes * our 
rude beggarly rhyming, brought first into Italy by Goths and Huns, 
wlien all good verses, and all good learning too, were destroyed by them.' 
" Milton's invective against Rhyme, I suspect, is to be received aun 
grano. He was probably provoked to strength of statement by having 
heard of the ' stumbling ' of many of the first readers of Paradise Lost, 
and perhaps of the outcry of some critics at the novelty of the verse. 
Meaning mainly to defend his choice of Blank verse for a poem of such 
an order, he may have let his expression sweep beyond the exact bounds 
of his intention. For, though he had used Blank verse in his own earlier 
poetry, as in Comus, had not the bulk of that poetry been in rhyme ? 
Nay, though he was to persist in Blank Verse, with fresh liberties and 
variations, in the two remaining poems of his life — Paradise Regained 
and Samson Agonistes — was he not in the choruses of Samson Jgonistes, 
to revert occasionally to Rhyme, and to use it in a most conscious and 
most cunningly artistic manner ? " — Masson. — Apt numbers. By 
this expression is probably meant what Pope lays down as a rule, — 

*' The sound should seem an echo to the sense," — 
the subtle sympathy which Cowper points out between souls and sounds. 
Dr. Edwin Guest remarks as follows : "Perhaps no man ever paid the 
same attention to the quality of his rhythm as Milton. In the flow of 
his rhythm, in the quality of his letter sounds, in the disposition of his 
pauses, his verse almost ever f-ts the subject." — Fit quantity of syl- 
lables. By this is probably meant that he * wished to discourage any 
strain upon the natural rhythm of the language ; he would have it 
adapted and not wrested to the purpose of metre,' — The sense variously 
drawn out from one verse into another. No blank verse ever sur- 
passed Milton's in the variety of the pauses. The ccesura of the verse 
(by which is here meant not the so-called classical csesura, but the rhe- 
torical pause required by the sense at the end of a period or of some 
portion of a period, though not at the end of a line) may occur any- 
where. It occurs oftenest at the end of the third foot (i. e. after the 
sixth syllable), as in Par. Lost, I, 1. 2. In the same book, 1. 509, it 
occurs after the 1st syllable ; in 573, after the 2d syl. ; in 5 and 56, 
after the 3d ; in 6, 41, 797, after the 4th ; in 71 and 533, after the 



I 



THE VERSE. 3 

then, of rime, so little is to be taken for a defect, though it 
may seem so perhaps to vulgar readers, that it rather is to be 
esteemed an example set, the first in English, of ancient liberty 
recovered to heroic poem from the troublesome and modern 
bondage of riming. 

5th ; in 54 and 615, after the 6th ; in 53 and 309, after the 7th ; in 12 
and 742, after the 8th ; in 386 and 443, Book I., and 547 and 573, Book 
II., after the 9th. Point out other instances of this ccesura in each posi- 
tion. — An example set, the first in English, etc. Here we have a 
casual glimpse of Milton's boldness, amounting at times almost to au- 
dacity. It is a hint, too, of that passion for liberty which in one form or 
another appears in almost everything he wrote : yet the reader will ob- 
serve with what reverent caution Milton shrinks from prying into the 
forbidden mysteries of God (see VII. 94, 95, 111, 120, 121 ; VIII. 167-8, 
172-3, etc.) ; and how the poem emphasizes, most of all, obedience (see V. 
611-12, 822, 900 ; VI. 36, 909 to 912 ; VIII. 633 to 643). —Bondage of 
riming. It will be interesting and profitable to study the advantages 
and disadvantages of rhyme, to collect choice passages illustrative of its 
beauty, and to balance against them the finest unrhymed lines. (See in 
Masson's Introduction to Paradise Lost, pp. 14, 15, an account of Dry- 
den's interview with Milton, and Dryden's attempt 'to putt Paradise Lost 
into a drama in rhyme ' ! See the verses of Andrew Marvell prefixed 
to the 2d edition of Paradise Lost.) Says Keightley, " The verse of Mil- 
ton and the great dramatists is not decasyllabic, but five-foot ; . . . 
besides the two dissyllabic feet it admits two trisyllabic, namely, the 
anapest {kj kj — ) and the amphibrach (v^ — kj), which feet may occupy 
any place and extend to any number. Thus in Shakespeare and Fletcher 
there are lines of fourteen syllables, four of the feet being trisyllabic. 
Of these Milton never admits more than two, so that his lines never 
go beyond twelve syllables ; like the dramatists he also uses the six-foot 
line." The student should verify or disprove these statements by actual 
inspection. 



PARADISE LOST. 



BOOK I. 

THE ARGUMENT. 



The First Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject, man's dis- 
obedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed ; 
then touches the prime cause of his fall, the serpent, or rather Satan in 
the serpent, who, revolting from God, and drawing to his side many- 
legions of angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of heaven, 
with all his crew, into the great deep. Which action passed over, the 
poem hastens into the midst of things, presenting Satan with his angels 
now fallen into Hell, described here, not in the centre, (for Heaven and 
Earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet acciu'sed,) but 
in a place of utter darkness, titliest called Chaos : here Satan, with his 
angels, lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a 
certain space recovers, as from confusion ; calls up him who next in order 
and dignity lay by him ; they confer of their miserable fall ; Satan awakens 
all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded ; they 
rise ; their numbers ; array of battle ; their chief leaders named according 
to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. 
To these Satan directs his speech, comforts them with hope yet of regain 
ing heaven, but tells them lastly of a new world and a new kind of creature 
to be created according to an ancient prophecy or report in heaven ; for 
that angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of many 
ancient fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to deter- 
mine thereon, he refers to a full coimcil. What his associates thence 
attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises, suddenly built out of 
the deep ; the infernal peers there sit in council. 

Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit 
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 

Line 1. Of man's first disobedience, etc. The origin of evil, a 
problem of universal and never-failing interest, is here suggested. Like 
Homer, but unlike Virgil and Tasso, Milton combines the announcement of 



6 PARADISE LOST. 

Brought death into the world, and all our woe, 
With loss of Eden till one greater Man 
Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, S 

Sing, heavenly Muse, that on the secret top 

the subject with the invocation of the Muse. Like Homer in the Iliad, but 
unlike the others, Milton keeps himself ont of sight at the first. Observe, too, 
that Milton's opening, like that of Virgil's first Georgic, keeps the mind in 
suspense, the interest deepening, and the tone swelling through several lines. 
The accumulated emphasis falls on sing. For dignity, modesty, compact- 
ness, and comprehensiveness, compare these exordiums. Fruit. Is this 
word to be taken literally ? or as equivalent to result f — 2. Tree. What trees 
are named in Genesis as having been in Eden? Mortal (Lat. mors, death, 
mortalis, subject to death ; mortalis in ecclesiastical Lat. means deadly, 
which is said to be the sense of mortal in this line. But is it likely that 
Milton repeats the notion of death-bringing? May 'mortal taste '.mean 
taste by a mortal?) — 3. Death. See Rom. v. 12; 1 Cor. xv. 21, 22; Gen. 
ii. 17. Woe. Note the order. Death precedes, it being the threatened 
penalty (moral death). — 4. Eden (a Hebrew word signifying pleasantness), 
paradise. Gen. ii. 8, " And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in 
Eden." See Gen. iii. 23, 24, Where was Eden supposed to be ? Par. Lost, 
IV. 210-215. Till one greater man. Rom. v. 15, 19, 20; 1 Cor. xv. 
45, 47.-5. Restore us. Shall, or may, restore? Seat. In Shakespeare 
{Richard II., Act II. Sc. 1) old Gaunt calls England, 

* This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars, 
This other Eden, demi-paradise.' 
The student should notice how the place of the csesura varies, the sense being 
'variously drawn out from one verse into another.' Of lines four and five, 
Landor remarks that they are * incumbrances and deadeners of the harmony.' 

* Incumbrances ' ? — to let the dark shadow give way to a moment's flash of 
restoration, a moment's glimpse of the great triumph of the Messiah portrayed 
in the twelfth book ? — ' Deadeners of the harmony ' ? De Quincey says, '* Be 
assured it is yourself that do not read with understanding; not Milton that by 
possibility can be found deaf to the demands of perfect harmony." Blissful 
seat = Sedes beatas, blest seats, in Virgil's ^neid, VI. 639. — 6. Sing, 
heavenly Muse. The proper muse of epic poetry among the ancients was 
Calliope. Lucretius, however, begins his De Rerum Natura with, "0 
bountiful Venus." Dante in his Paradisq invokes Apollo ; in his P^irgatorio, 
the * holy Muses ' ; in his Inferno, the ' Muses,' the ' high Genius,' and 

* Memory.' Milton's muse is none of these, but the one that inspired Moses, 
David, and Isaiah. In this, Milton resembles Tasso. From Horeb or Sinai, 
from Sion hill and Siloa's brook, Milton calls upon a far loftier muse than 
*' Dame Memory and her siren daughters." In the beginning of the seventh 
book he names her Urania (i. e. the heavenly one), but he is careful to prevent 
her from being identified with the Urania of classic mythology ; thus : -— 



PARADISE LOST. 7 

Of Oreb or of Sinai, didst inspire 7 

That shepherd, who first taught the chosen seed 

" Descend from heaven, Urania, by that name 
If rightly thou art called, whose voice divine 
Following, above the Olympian hill I soar, 
Above the flight of Pegasean wing. 
The meaning, not the name, I call." 
"By this Muse," says Keightley, " he probably means the genius and charac- 
ter, the divinely animated power, of the Hebrew poetry, as displayed in the 
Pentateuch by Moses, in the Psalms, etc., by David and others." Professor 
Himes {Study of Par, Lost) remarks: **The Genius of sacred song is the 
sister and companion of eternal Wisdom, and gives to the language of the 
blessed that prompt eloquence and musical sweetness by which it is character- 
ized. She appears as the inspirer of the poetical language in versified portions 
of the Sacred Scripture, while the Holy Spirit is the Revealer of the truth," 
Secret top. We may, with Cowper, Storr, and others, interpret secret in 
its ordinary sense, referring to the 'thick cloud' and 'smoke' (Exod. xix. 12, 
13, 16, 18, etc., xxiv. 15, etc.; Heb. xii. 18-21); or with Landor, R. C. 
Browne, and the majority of critics, we may take secret in its original Latin 
sense of apart, retired, separate; as secreta in jEneid, II. 299, secretos, jEneid, 
VIII. 670 ; and as Milton perhaps uses the word in his verses Upon the Cir- 
cumcision, 1. 19, * he that dwelt above, high-throned in secret bliss.' See Par. 
Lost, V. 597 - 599. The two meanings are closely connected. Is it a plausible 
conjecture, that by the word ' secret ' Milton may have alluded to the impos- 
sibility of identifying the mountain ? — 7. Oreb. So the mountain is called 
in 2 Esdras ii. 33. Milton takes a poet's liberty in softening ' Horeb ' into 
* Oreb.' It is the mountain upon, which God spake to Moses from the burn- 
ing bush, and must not be confounded with the ' rock Oreb ' in Judges vii. 
25; Isaiah X. 26. The word Horeb means dry. Sinai (usually a dissyl.) is 
interpreted to mean 'jagged,' * full of clefts.' See Dr. William Smith's ylnc. 
A tlas, Map 39 ; and his Diet, of the Bible, under the word Sinai. The Sinaitic 
peninsula is triangular, about one hundred and forty miles from north to 
south, and nearly as broad. Here Moses had been a shepherd for forty years. 
The mountain -peaks are very numerous, and the whole group is sometimes 
called Sinai. Horeb was one of the most northerly of the cluster ; Sinai, in a 
restricted sense, one of the most southerly. In Deuteronomy, the * mount of 
promulgation ' is called Horeb ; elsewhere, Sinai. The Greek form is Siyia. 
That shepherd. So Moses is metaphorically called in Isaiah Ixiii. 11. In 
Exod. iii. 1, he * kept the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law.' See Hesiod's 
Theog. 1. 21, etc. Inspire. What poetry did Moses write ? See Exod. xv. ; 
Ps. xc; Deut. xxxii. 1-43, xxxiii. 

" Tliis was the bravest warrior 

That ever buckled sword ; 

This the most gifted poet 

That ever breathed a word." 

Mrs. Alexander's Bmial of Moses. 



8 PARADISE LOST. 

In the beginning how the heavens and earth 

Eose out of chaos : or, if Sion hill ic 

Delight thee more, and Siloa's brook that flowed 

Fast by the oracle of God, I thence 

Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song. 

That with no middle flight intends to soar 

Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues if 

Chosen seed. Deut iv. 37, " He chose their seed." So Deut. x. 15, and 

1 Chron. xvi. 13. — 9. In the beginning. "In the beginning God created 
the heaven and the earth." Gen. i. 1. The phrase modifies what ? — 10. Rose 
out of chaos (Gr. x^os, fr. xao-««' x"*""^ to open wide, to yawn ; x^os, a 
vast, yawning abyss, gulf, or chasm). So in Far. Lost, HI. 12, 'The rising 
workl of waters ' is represented as ' won from the void and formless infinite. ' 
Sion (the Greek form of the Hebi-ew name Zion), one of the liills on 
which Jerusalem was built. See Smith's Dictmiary of the Bible, Vol. IV. 
pp. 3632-4, under the word ' Zion.' — 11. Siloa's brook. (Siloa seems to be 
here accented on the first syllable; biit see note on 'spirit' line 17.) 
The Clar. Press ed. has this note : "Sion was the hill opposite to Moriah, 
on which latter the Temple was built. In the valley beside them was 
the Pool (not brook) of Siloam, — an intermittent well, ebbing and 
flowing at irregular intervals." But in Isaiah viii. 6, we are told of 'the 
waters of Shiloah that go softly.' " The word ' softly' does not seem to refer 
to the secret transmission of the waters, but to the quiet gentleness with 
which the rivulet steals on its mission of beneficence. Thus ' Siloa's brook ' 
of Milton, and 'cool Siloam's shady rill,' are not mere poetical fancies. The 
* fountain ' and the ' pool ' and the ' rill ' of Siloam are all visible to this day, 
each doing its old work beneath the high rock of Moriah, and almost beneath 
the shadow of the Temple wall." Smith's Diet, of the Bible, p. 3040, sitbvoce 
'Siloam.' See, "Go wash in the pool of Siloam,* John ix. 7. — 12. Fast by 
(A. Q.fast; Ger. fest ; firm, closely adhering), close by. So Par, Lost, II. 
725 ; X. 333. Oracle. The Temple, or the Holy of Holies in the Temple ? 

2 Sam. xvi. 23, 'as if a man had inquired at the oracle of God ' ; so 1 Kings 
vi. 16; viii. 6 ; 2 Chron. iv. 20 ; Ps. xxviii. 2. (Lat. oraculum, oracle, fr. o.s, 07'is, 
mouth.) — 14-16. That with, etc. These three lines are condemned by 
Landor as useless and inharmonious. Is the criticism just ? "Was the loftiness 
of the theme a sufficient reason for specially invoking aid ? Middle. Middling, 
mediocre ? Horace, Odes, II. 20, says, " I shall be conveyed through the 
liquid air with no vulgar or humble wing." But see 'middle' in 1. 516. 
Intends. Spoken elegantly as well as modestly of his song rather than him- 
self? 15. Aonian. Aon, son of Poseidon (Neptune), was the reputed ancestor 
of some of the most ancient inhabitants of Boiolia, who were called from him 
A«3iies. Hence Aonia, the name of a part, and often of the whole of Ba^otia. 
The Muses, who frequented Mount Helicon in Boeotia, were often called 



PARADISE LOST. 9 

Things unattempted yet in prose or rhime. 

And chiefly Thou, Spirit, that dost prefer 17 

Before all temples the upright heart and pure, 

' Aonian Sisters.' " The Ao7iian mount is here used for the productious of the 
Greek poets, which Milton intends to surpass in boldness of conception." H. 
C. Browne. "In Milton only, first and last, is the power of the sublime 
revealed. In Milton only does this great agency blaze and glow as a furnace 
kept up to a white heat — without suspicion of collapse." De Quincey. 
Pursues, traces in song. Lat. prosequi ; e. g. in Virgil, Georgics, III. 340, 
" Why should I pursue (in song) the shepherds and pastures?" etc. Sequi is 
thus used in Horace, Art of Poetry, 1. 240. Milton, like Shakespeare, is fond 
of using words in their Latin sense. — 16. A similar line is pointed out 
ill Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, Canto I. st. 2. So in Comus, 1. 44. Unat- 
tempted. Says Masson, *' A great deal has been written concerning the 
' origin ' of Paradise Lost. Some thirty authors have been cited as entitled 
to the credit of having probably or possibly contributed something to the 

conception, the plan, or the execution of Milton's great poem What 

is to be said of all this ? For the most part, it is laborious nonsense. That 
in any of the books, or in all of them, together, there is to be found * the 
origin of Paradise Lost,' in any intelligible sense of the phrase, is utterly pre- 
posterous." Ehime is I\Iilton's spelling here, and as he uses rime in his 
prefatory remarks on the verse, it is supposed that the two spellings indicate 
different meanings; rime ('rhyme' in modern orthography) meaning 'the 
jingling sound of like endings' ; and rhivie (rhythm) meaning verse in gen- 
eral as distinguished from prose. (A. S. riman, to number, seems to be the 
original of rime; whereas rhythm is the Greek pvO/nos). — 17. Spirit. In 
his Reason of Church Government Urged against Prelaty (1641), Milton gives 
intimation of his intention to write a great poem, and for the afflatus he relies 
upon no ordinary means, but upon 'devout prayer to that Eternal Spirit that 
can enrich with all utterance and all knowledge.' Observe that he invokes 
the Holy Spirit to instruct ; the Muse to sing. Keightley suggests that in 
this double invocation Milton had in view something similar in Fletcher's 
Purple Island (VI. 25). In Job xxxii. 8, we read, " But there is -a spirit in 
man ; and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding." Did 
Milton regard himself as inspired ? Isaiah Ivii. 15 ; Luke xvii. 21. Scan 
this line as follows : 

And chief | ly Thou | Spir | it that dost | prefer. 
There is no need of reducing ' spirit ' to a monosyllable. Regular pen- 
tameters, composed exclusively of iambics, would soon become monot- 
onous. Milton introduces occasionally pyrrhics [>^w], trochees [— vy], 

spondees [ ], anapests [ww— ], amphibrachs [\j — \j\ and perhaps tri- 

brachs [www] and dactyls [— ww]. He always, or nearly always, gives 
us five accented syllables ; but he disposes the accent according to his own 
sense of fitness. 18. — Before all temples. "Know ye not that ye are the 



10 PARADISE LOST. 

Instruct me, for Thou knowest. Thou from the first 
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread, 20 

Dove-like, sat'st brooding on the vast abyss. 
And madest it pregnant. What in me is dark 
Ilkimine ; what is low, raise and support ; 
That to the highth of this great argument 
I may assert eternal providence, 25 

And justify the ways of God to men. 

temple of God ? " 1 Cor, iii. 16. —19. Instruct me, etc. See note on 1. 17. 
For thou knowest. So in Theocritus, Idyl, xxii. 116, etVe dfd, trb yap olirda. 
Wast present. So in Homer's Iliad, II. 484, 485, " Tell me now, ye Musea 
having Olympian homes ; for ye are goddesses, and ye are present [with all 
things] and know all." Similar is also Virgil's yEneid, VII. 641, 645 ; so 
Hesiod's Theogony, 1. 116. — 21. Dovelike. Why ' dovelike ' ? Massoa 
remarks, " The comparison 'dovelike,' to illustrate the meaning of 'brood- 
ing ' in the passage, occurs in the Talmudists or Jewish commentators on th« 
Bible. There may be a recollection also of Luke iii. 22." Brooding. The 
language of the Bible (Gen. i. 2) is, " And the Spirit of God moved upon the 
face of the waters " ; but ' brooded ' or ' hovered ' is said to be the strict trans- 
lation of the Hebrew word rendered 'moved.' In Hesiod's Theog., 1, 176, we 
have, "Then came vast Heaven and brooded around Earth." Abyss. This 
word usually means in Par, Lost the gulf of Chaos, in wliich, and from a part 
of which, our universe was formed. See II. 910, and the remainder of that 
book. — 24. Highth. So Milton spelled the word, and as the sound is a 
little different from height, we retain the old. Argument, subject. In Par. 
Lost, IX. 13-19, Milton compares his ' argument ' with those of Homer and 
Virgil. So Spenser in his prefatory lines speaks of the ' argument ' of his 
'afflicted stile.' See Hamlet, HI. ii. 149, " Have you heard the argument of 
the play?" 1 Henry IV., II. iv. 310, "The argument shall be thy running 
away." — 25, 26. Milton, then, had a great moral purpose in this poem. In 
all that he wrote in verse, he never forgot, to use his own language, 'what 
religious, what glorious, what magnificent tise may be made of poetry.' " As 
to the Paradise Lost" says De Quincey, "it happens that there is —whether 
there ought to be or not — a pure golden moral, distinctly announced, separately 
contemplated, and the very weightiest ever uttered by man or realized by 
fable. It is a moral rather for the drama of a world than for a human 
poem. And this moral is made the more prominent and memorable by the 
grandeur of its annunciation. The jewel is not more splendid in itself than in 
its setting. Excepting the well-known passage on Athenian oratory in the 
Paradise Regained, there is none even in Milton where the metrical pomp is 
made so effectually to aid the pomp of the sentiment. Hearken to the way in 
which a roll of dactyls is made to settle, like the swell of the advancing tide, 
into the long thunder of billows breaking for leagues against the shore ! 



n 



PARADISE LOST, 11 

Say first — for Heaven hides nothing from thy view, 
Nor the deep tract of hell — say first, what cause 
Moved our grand parents in that happy state, 
Favored of Heaven so highly, to fall off 30 

From their Creator, and transgress his will 
For one restraint, lords of the world besides ] 
Who first seduced them to that foul revolt ? 
The infernal Serpent ; he it was, whose guile, 
Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived 35 

' That to the height of this great argument 
I may assert eternal providence.' 
Hear what a motion, what a tumult, is given by the dactylic close to each of 
the introductory lines ! And how massily is the whole locked up into the 
peace of heaven, as the aerial arch of a viaduct is locked up into tranquil 
stability by its key-stone, through the deep spondaic close, 
' And justify the ways of God to men.' 
That is the moral of the Miltonic epos ; and as much grander than any other 
moral formally illustrated by poets as heaven is higher than earth." (De 
Quiucey in Note-hook of an English Opium-Eater. ) — 27. Say first. See 
quotation from the Iliad in note to line 19, and the other passages there 
referred to. Heaven hides, etc. Ps. cxxxix. 8, " If I ascend up into 
heaven, thou art tliere ; if I make my bed in hell, beliold, thou art there ! " 
See in Prov.xv. 11, " Hell and destruction are before the Lord." —28. What 
cause. So in Virgil {^neid, I. 8), Musa, mihi causas viemora^ Muse, 
relate to me the causes. — 29. Grand (Lat. grandis, large), great. So we 
have 'grand thief,' Par. Lost, IV. 192; 'grand foe, Satan,' X. 1033. 
Compare 'grandfather,' 'great uncle,' etc. — 30. Note the alliteration and 
repetition of the sound of /. — 32. For one restraint. Keightley puts an 
interrogation mark after will, and makes ' for ' = hut for, as if modifying 
'lords.' Others interpret 'for' as equivalent to on account of, modifying 
'transgress.' Which is preferable? What is the 'restraint'? Force of 
'besides ' ? — 33, 34. Who first seduced them, etc. So Iliad, I. 8, 

Tts t' ap (r(p(a^ Oewu eptSi ^vyerjKC ^tio^f c^of ; 

Atjtovs /coi Aihs vlos, 
and which, then, of the gods committed the twain to contend in angry strife ? 
The son of Latona and of Jove. Serpent. Gen. iii. ; Rev. xii. 9 ; xx. 2. 
Pi'ofessor Himes {Sttcdy of Paradise Lost) points out the striking resem- 
blance between the son of Latona, Apollo, when malignant, and Milton's 
Satan. — 35. Envy. Satan at his first view of Adam and Eve (Par. Lost, IV. 
358) exclaims, *' hell ! what do mine eyes with grief behold ! " In IV. 502, 
.503, " Aside the devil turned for envy " of the happy pair. Revenge. In 



12 PARADISE LOST. 

The mother of mankind, what time his pride 

Had cast him out from heaven, with all his host 

Of rebel angels ; by whose aid, aspiring 

To set himself in glory above his peers, 

He trusted to have equalled the Most High, 40 

If he opposed ; and, with ambitious aim, 

Par. Lost, IV. 389, 390, Satau assigns his grouuds for destroying our 
first parents, 

* public reason just, 
Honor and empire, with revenge enlarged.' 

* Revenge' for what? — 36. Mother of mankind. Hve means life, or 
living; as is implied in Gen. iii. 20, "And Adam called his wife's name 
Eve, because she was the mother of all living." What time. Lat, quo tem- 
pore, at the time in which. So in Lycidas, * "What time the gray-fly winds 
her sultry horn.' — 37. Cast out. Rev. xii, 9, "And the great dragon was 
cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan .... and his angels 
were cast out with him." — 38. Aspiring. Landor makes this line the first 
' hendecasyllabic ' line in the poem. It is indeed the first line with a re- 
dundant syllable at the end ; but lines 1, 11, 13, 17, and 34 ai-e intended to 
have eleven syllables ? Lines with one extra syllable at the end are very 
frequent in Shakespeare. Masson reckons ' nine lines with a supernumerary 
final syllable ' in the first book of Par. Lost. Which are they ? The 
Clar. Press ed. remarks upon such lines that they are very 'efficient in 
dramatic poetry, but hardly ever in Milton.' — 39. To set himself in 
glory above his peers. In Par. Lost, V. 812, we read the language of Abdiel 
to Satan, 'In place thyself so high above thy peers.' Bentley therefore 
objects to this verse, because Satan's crime arose from ambition to be above 
the Messiah. But Bishop Pearce well insists that the words ' in glory ' are 
all-important. The next line shows the A;mfc? of glory. "Peers {Lat. jfares, 
equals ; fit companions for a sovereign ?). — 40. He trusted to have equalled 
the Most High. In Isa. xiv. 14, the wicked King of Babylon, styled Lucifer, 
says, " I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ; I will be like the Most 
High." See its context. To have equalled. Abbott, Shakespearian Gram.^ 
sec. 3G0, citing this line, explains this use of tlie perfect instead of the present 
infinitive thus : "The same idiom is found in Latin poetry (Madrig, 407, Obs. 
2) after verbs of wishing and intending. The reason of the idiom seems to be 
a desire to express that the object wished or intended is a completed fact that 
has happened contrary to the wish, and cannot now be altered." Storr says, 
" Tiie past infinitive " is so used " to express that the thing wished is now 
passed and impossible." — 41. If he opposed. If zr'/to opposed ? It appears 
that tlie fallen angels were ignorant and doubtful in regard to the strength of 
the Almighty and the likelihood of his actively exerting that strength ? In 
lines 93, 94, of this book, Satan asks, " And, till then, who knew the force of 



PARADISE LOST. 13 

Against the throne and monarchy of God 
Eaised impious war in heaven and battle proud, 
With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power 
Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, 45 

With hideous ruin and combustion, down 
To bottomless perdition : there to dwell 
In adamantine chains and penal fire. 
Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms. 

those dire arms?" Beelzebub, too, lines 143, 144, says he now believes the 
conqueror to be almighty. In line 641, Satan expressly says the Almighty 
' concealed ' his strength till the war in heaven arose. For similar allusions, 
and for the origin of the war in heaven, see Book V. — 43. Battle. May this 
mean army, or ' imbodied fbrce,' as in Shakespeare? Proud, presumptuous, 
audacious. — 45. Hurled, etc. Note the tremendous energy of the line, and 
how much force the appropriate reading of the first three words demands. 
The critics cite the fall of Satan in Luke x. 18, the hurling of Vulcan in Jliad, 
I. 591. See the Prometheus of ^schylus, 366-369. Ethereal (Gr. arew, to 
burn, to light up ; Lat. cether, upper air), consisting of the subtle tiery 
essence or fluid imagined to fill the planetary spaces. — 40. Buin (Lat. •niere, 
to rush down ; riiina, precipitate fall), violent fall. Combustion (Lat. com, 
completely ; burere = urere, to burn), fierce burning In Par. Lost, \l. 
864-866, this scene is described with like energy, — 

" Headlong themselves they threw 
Down from the verge of heaven ; eternal wrath 
Burnt after them to the bottomless pit." 

See n. 80, 165, 166. As to 'ruin and combustion,' Masson says, "Mr. Dyce 
found this phrase in a document of the Long Parliament in 1642. Mr. 
Keightley, accordingly, suggests that the phrase may have been a popular 
one about that time." Mr. Keightley has a rather slender foundation for 
his conjecture ; a single instance, and that twenty or twenty-five years before ! 
especially as Milton is in the habit of avoiding conmion phrases. Down. 
Notice the caesura in this verse ; as if the tumultuous scene were passing before 
the poet's eye, and the pause indicated the momentary brandishing of a tliun- 
derbolt which comes smiting at the word ' down ' ? — 47. Bottomless per- 
dition. " As bottomless is the translation of &fivcr<ros [abyssus], the meaning 
of tliese words is probably perdition, i. e. loss (sc. of former state of glory) in 
the abyss." Keightley. But is it necessary to look so far for the meaning ? 
See Rev. ix. 1, 2 ; xx. 1, 3 for the phrase ' bottomless pit.' — 48. Adaman- 
tine (a negative or pi'ivative ; 5o/idw, to conquer ; aSafias, the unconquered 
or unconquerable. It is used of the hardest metal. Hesiod speaks of 
* hearts of adamant.' So Zechariah vii. 12, '' They made their hearts as 



14 PARADISE LOST. 

/ 
/ Nine times the space that measures day and night 50 
To mortal men, he with his liorrid crew- 
Lay vanquished, rolling in the fiery gulf, 
Confounded, though immortal : but his doom 
Reserved him to more wrath ; for now the thought 
Both of lost hapi^iness and lasting pajn 55 

Torments him. Round he throws his baleful eyes, 
That witnessed huge affliction and dismay 

an adamant stone." See Jude 6 ; Ezekiel iii. 9. See Trench's comments 
on the word adamant in English, Past and Present. Our word diamond 
[Ger. demanf] is a form of the Greek), not to be broken. Spenser has 'ada- 
mantine chains'; ^schylus, 'ASafiayrlvuv Sea-ficou, adamantinon desmon, of 
bonds never to be broken. — 49. Durst. Any difference between this and 
dared? Antecedent of who? — 50. Nine times. The Clar. Press ed. re- 
marks on this line, " Hesiod's description of the fall of the giants is liere imi- 
tated." To this statement it may be objected, (1) that this line of Milton's does 
not describe any fall ; (2) that Hesioddoes not describe the fall of the giants ; 
(3) that there is no trace of imitation in the line. Says Dr. L. Schmitz, 
"Neither Homer nor Hesiod knows anything about the contest of the gods 
with the Gigantes." Hesiod merely says it would take an anvil nine days 
and nights to fall from heaven to earth, and nine days and nights to fall 
from earth to Tartarus. The space that measures day and night. In this 
region the sun never shone, and there was nothing to mark the divisions of 
time. A portion of the period during which Milton imagines these fallen angels 
to have lain here, is the precise time of the creation of our visible universe. 
See Par. Lost, VII. The nine days are subsequent to the nine days (Book 
VI. 871) of the fall of the rebel angels from heaven to hell. "■ Nine, as 
Mr. Hume" (Patrick Hujue, a Scotch schoolmaster, who published in 1695 
the first annotated edition of Par. Lost) "pointed out, was a mystical 
number, often used by the ancient poets, by way of a certain for an uncer- 
tain time." — 51. Crew (Lat. crescere, to increase; Fr. croUre, to grow, crU, 
grown), company; gang. Spenser has 'a crew of lords and ladies.' — 
53. Confounded (Lat. con, together, completely ; fundSre, to pour ; con- 
fundere, to blend in confusion), utterly bewildered. The student should no- 
tice in all these lines the great variety of places in which the caesuras fall, and 
the effect on the harmony. —56. Torments. Milton alwaj^s accents this 
word on the last syllable when a verb (as in Book X. 781 ; XI. 769), but the 
noun would appear to be usually accented on the first syllable as now. Baleful 
(A. S. bealo, Old Eng. bale, torment, calamity, wickedness, trouble ; Welsh, 
ball, a plague ; Tcel. bola, a blister, a boil, or bdl, a misery), boding ein'l (or 
causing distress). Ordinarily it means sorrowful ? What of the old supersti- 
tion about the injurious magic or fascination of an 'evil eye'? — 57. Wit- 
nessed, testified to, bore witness of. The Clar. Press ed. says, "The woixl is 



PARADISE LOST. 15 

Mixed with obdurate pride and steadfast hate. 

At once, as far as angel's ken, he views 

The dismal situation waste and wild : 60 

A dungeon horrible on all sides round 

As one great furnace flamed ; yet from those flames 

No light ; but rather darkne'ss visible 

always used in this sense in Shakespeare and iu Milton, and not (as now) as 
merely equivalent to ' saw.' " Milton, however, appears to use * witness ' 
once in the sense of 'see' in Par. Lost, III. 700; and he uses 'witnessed' 
nowhere in his poems except in this passage. — 58. Obdurate. Note the 
proper original accent of the word, from Lat. dunes, hard. The preference, 
or at least the tendency, now seems to be in favor of placing it on the first 
syllable. — 59. As far as angel's ken. In Milton's time it was not common 
to mark the possessive case by an apostrophe. We are therefore uncertain 
whether angels is nom. plu., possess, plu., or possess, sing., and whether ken 
is a verb or a noun. Hunter, Major, Storr, and others make angels plu. and 
ken a verb. Keightley and Masson print Angel's, and, with Ross, they make 
ken a noun. Which is best ? Ken (A. S. cunnan, can, to know, to be able; 
Old Eng, kennen, to know, know by sight ; ken, the view, the gaze ; Scot. 
ken, know; akin to Gr. root yvo, gno, Lat. {g)nosco), knowledge gained by 
sight, range of vision. — 60. Situation. " This word is used only here in 
Milton's poems, and but twice by Shakespeare." R. C. Browne. But 
Shakespeare also used the plu. situations, and both he and Milton use situate 
as a participle meaning placed. Waste and wild. Keightley thinks that 
here is a recollection of Gen. i. 2, 'without form and void.' Note the 
alliteration. — 61. Dungeon (Lat. dominio, mastership, rule ; whence dongeo, 
as Fr. songer fr. somniare ; donjon, the large tower or redoubt of a fortress. 
The word originally meant the principal building of a district, or the fortress 
which commanded the rest), ' an underground prison, such as once used to be 
placed in the strongest part of the fortress.' Wedgwood. Marsh, in his Lec- 
tures on the English Language, prefers to derive it from de homagio ; 
* because, in the principal tower of a feudal fortress, styled in Portuguese 
torre de homenagen, tower of homage, the ceremony of pledging fealty, or 
homage, took place.' On all sides round. Modifies what? — 62. Great 
furnace. The language used in Rev. ix. 2. — 63. No light. Supply came, or 
shone, or there ^oas ? Zeugma ? Darkness visible. This powerful line 
arrests the attention of many critics. Hunter quotes from Chaucer''s Parson's 
Tale, " In hell . . . the dark light that shall come out of the fire . . . showeth 
him the horrible devils," etc. Todd cites from The Wisdom of Solomon, 
xvii. 5, "No power of the fire might give them light." Keightley suggests, 
in Walker's History of Independency (1648), I. 14, " Their burning zeal with- 
out knowledge is like hell-fire without light"; also, Hey wood's description of 
hell, " Burns, but wastes not, and adds to darkness, night.'' Ne^vton recalls 



16 PARADISE LOST. 

Served only to discover sights of woe, 

Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace 65 

And rest can never dwell ; hope never conies 

That comes to all ; but torture without end 

Still urges, and a fiery deluge, fed 

With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed. 

Such place eternal justice had prepared 70 

For those rebellious ; here their prison ordained 

In utter darkness, and their portion set 

As far removed from God and light of heaven 

Seneca's description of the grotto of Pausilippo, "We see not through the dark- 
ness, but see the darkness itself." De Quincey explains the passage as meaning 
' a sullen light intermingled with darkness.' Bentley thought to improve 
upon it by substituting for Milton's line the following : * No light, but rather 
a transpicuous gloom ' ! Voltaire refers to a History of Mexico by Antonio 
de Solis, published in 1684, speaking of the place where Montezuma used to 
consult his deities, " It was a large dark subterranean vault, where dismal 
tapers afforded just light enough to see the obscurity." So in the Bacchce of 
Euripides, 1. 510, "that he may behold dim darkness." In Spenser's Faerie 
Queene, I. 1. 14, we have — 

" His glistering armor made 
A little glooming light, much like a shade." 

We might add Shakespeare's " Hell is murky," and Milton's " Burning embers 
through the room teach light to counterfeit a gloom." —66. Hope never comes. 
So Dante's Inferno, III. 9, "All hope abandon, ye who enter here" (the 
inscription over the gate of hell). Urges (Lat. urgere, to press, push, drive), 
harasses, presses. —69. Sulphur. The brimstone of Rev. xx. 10. — 70. Had 
prepared. ' Everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,' Matt. xxv. 
41. —72. Darkness, as in Jude, 6, 13. Utter (A. S. ut, out, uter, outer), the 
same as outer in Matt. xxii. 13, is found in Par. Lost, III. 16, V. 614. 
Spenser {Faerie Queene, IV. x. 11) has utter for outer in the line, "Till to 
tlie bridge's utter gate I came," and similarly Ben Jonson speaks of ' the utter 
shell of knowledge.' Portion, part assigned, as in Matt. xxiv. 51. — 73. As 
far removed. " Not very far," says Landor, " for creatures who could have 
measured all that, and a much greater distance, by a single act of the will." 
But could they ? It took them nine days to fall thither, pursued all the way 
by lightnings. Par. Lost, Book VI. 865-875. The archangel Raphael 
(Par. Lost, VIII. 110-114) seems to have been some hours in coming from 
Heaven to Eden, though his path was unobstructed (Book V. 256-270): — 

" Me thou thinkest not slow. 
Who, since the morning hour, set out from heaven 
Where God resides, and ere midday arrived 



f 



PARADISE LOST. 17 

As from the centre thrice to the utmost pole. 

Oil, how unlike the place from whence they fell ! 75 

There the companions of his fall, o'erwhelmed 

With floods and whirlwinds of tempestuous fire, 

He soon discerns ; and, weltering by his side. 

One next himself in power, and next in crime, 

In Ederf, distance inexpressible 
By numbers that have name." 

Evidently it was far enough. 

See in the Introduction the diagrams illustrating Milton's conception of the 
successive stages of creation in that portion of infinite space with which this 
poem deals. Our starry universe, which Milton calls ' the world,' is attached 
to the Empyrean at a single glittering point. Far. Lost, Book II. 1051, 1052. 
Keightley cites, after Todd, on line 72, a few words from Milton's Doctrine of 
Divorce, ' a local hell ... in that uttermost and bottomless gulf of Chaos, 
deeper from holy bliss than the world's diameter multiplied.' (See the dia- 
grams in the Introduction.) — 74. As from the centre thrice, etc. Nearly 
all the commentators appear to have mistaken Milton's meaning. Professor 
Himes {Study of Milton's Paradise Lost, pp. 21, 22) well says : " Homer and 
Virgil, to whom Milton took pains to conform as nearly as possible, recognized 
below the Empyrean three regions, one above the other, and of equal height. 
The first was the Ethereal, extending from Heaven to Earth ; the second was 
Hades, of like depth; the third and lowest was Tartarus, or the place of pun- 
ishment, an equal distance below Hades. Homer, speaking of the location 
of Tartarus, teaches that it extends * as far below Hades as the distance from 
Heav^ to Earth.' [Iliad, VIII. 16.) 

T6aaov evepS' 'AiSew, '6(Tov ovpavos ear airh 70177?. 
Virgil, measuring from the surface of the earth, and of course including Hades, 
says, ' Then Tartarus itself sinks deep down and extends towards the shades 
twice as far as is the prospect upward to the ethereal throne of Heaven' 
U'Eneid, VI. 577-9) : — 

' Tmn Tartarus ipse 
Bis patet in prceceps tantuvi, tenditque suh umbras, 
Quantus ad cetherium cceli suspectus Olympum.^ 

Milton's phraseology is equivalent to saying that the whole distance from 
Heaven to Hell is three times as far as from Heaven to Earth. — Utmost pole, 
the pole of this universe of ours, the end of the axis of our heavens. — 75. Oh, 
how unlike the place, etc. This momentary glimpse of heaven adds to the 
horror? — 77. Note the energy and the alliteration. Dunster quotes Psalm 
xi. 6, ''Upon the wicked he shall rain snares, fire and brimstone, anil an 
horrible tempest." — 78. Weltering (Lat. volvere, vohUare; Ger. tvdlzen; 
A. S. waeltan ; English, walloiv), rolling. So in Lycidas, 1. 13, the corpse 



18 PARADISE LOST. 

Long after known in Palestine and named 80 

Beelzebub. To whom the arch-enemy, 
And thence in heaven called Satan, with bold words 
Breaking the horrid silence, thus began : — 

" If thou beest he — but oh, how fallen ! how changed 
From him, who, in the happy realms of light, 85 

Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine 
Myriads though bright ! — if he whom mutual league, 
United thoughts and counsels, equal hope 

* welters ' as it floats in the sea. — 80. Palestine (Hebrew, Pelesheth). Here, 
as in Exodus xv. 14, Philistia, the narrow sea-coast southwest from the Holy 
Land seems to be included. — 81. Beelzebub. He is styled 'the prince of 
the devils ' in Matt. xii. 24. The word is said to mean ' god of flies ' ! (though 
others interpret it 'lord of the dunghill,') and to be more correctly spelled 
Beelzebul. Professor Himes is inclined to identify, to some extent, 'Beel- 
zebub with Artemis, the lunar divinity, as Satan has been identified with 
Apollo, the solar divinity,' and we are reminded of 'the crescent-crowned 
cestriis-driven lo, one of the many forms under which the moon-goddess ap- 
pears.' Says anotlier critic: "Some authors suppose that he [Beelzebub] was 
so called [god of flies], because the inhabitants of Ekron worshipped the beetle ; 
which worship they perhaps borrowed from their superstitions neighbors, 
the Egyptians." See 2 Kings i. 2, where he is called 'the god of Ekron.' 
See Isaiah vii. 18, for a possible allusion to this worship. Flies in some of 
the eastern countries are an inexpressible torment, and ' god of flies ' seems 
to a European there no inappropriate appellation for him Avhom our Saviour 
called ' prince of devils ' ! — 82. Thence, from that fact, i. e. because he is an 
enemy, the chief enemy. Satan in Hebrew signifies adversary. — 84. Beest. 
Keightley pronounces ' beest ' here ' a grammatical error ' ; l)ut Shakes, uses 
the word similarly in Julius Ccesar, IV. 3, " If that thou beest a Roman." 
Beest is lineally descended from A. S. hyst, like Ger. hist. Oh, how fallen ! 
how changed! In Isaiah xiv. 12, we have, "How art thou fallen from 
heaven, Lucifer, Son of the Morning"! and in Virgil, ^neid, II. 274, 
we read " Hei mihi, qualis erat! quantum mutatits, etc.. Ah me, how he 
looked! how changed," etc. Note the abrupt transitions in this speech, 
indicating the tumultuous agitation of Satan's soul ! Any art in this? — 
86. Brightness. In Par. Lost, V. 708, his countenance is compared to 
the morning star. In line 599, Book I., he still shines, though 'darkened.' 
Everywhere, Milton seems to proceed on the theory that the bodies of 
spirits are luminous like fire. — 87. Myriads. A myriad, fj.vpids in Greek, 
was originally ten thousand. Here it is put for vast multitude ? Mutual 
(Lat. inuto, mutare, to change), exchangeable, or exchanged, or the result of 
excliange or stipulation. Macaulay stigmatizes "the low barbarism of 'mu- 
tual friend V' ! — 88. United. Epithet describing 'thoughts' and 'counsels ' ? 



PARADISE LOST. 19 

And hazard in the glorious enterprise, 

Joined with me once, now misery hath joined 90 

In equal ruin — into what pit thou seest. 

From what height fall'n, so much the stronger proved 

He with his thunder : and till then who knew 

The force of those dire arms 1 Yet not for those, 

Nor what the potent Victor in his rage 95 

Can else inflict, do I repent, or change. 

Though changed in outward lustre, that fixed mind, 

And high disdain from sense of injured merit. 

That with the mightiest raised me to contend, 

And to the fierce contention brought along 100 

Innumerable force of spirits armed 

That durst dislike his reign, and, me preferring, 

His utmost power with adverse power opposed 

In dubious battle on the plains of Heaven, 

And shook his throne. What though the field be lost 1 105 

All is not lost ; the unconquerable will, 

And study of revenge, immortal hate, 

And courage never to submit or yield, 

I And what is else not to be overcome — 

! That glory never shall his wrath or might no 

I Thoughts, one of the subjects of 'joined' ? — 89. Glorious. This word viv- 

:, idly suggests the aspiring ambition of Satan. — 90. Now misery hath joined. 

I Supply rohom ? or thee 1 What is the conclusion of the sentence beginning 

with if, lines 84 and 87 ? Bentley points out the similarity of the passage to 

• Ovid, Met. i. 351. — 91-93. This passage is wonderfully condensed, "Thou, 

I being fallen from such height into such depth, art shown how much stronger 

I he was." Thunder. The thunder made a deep impression on Satan and his 

followers. How often they allude to it ! Is there any trace here of the notion 

I in Shakespeare (in Julius Ccesar, for instance) of the thunder as a weapon 

\ spjmrate from the lightning ? — 94. Force. Meaning of this word in line 101 ? 

1 The language of Prometheus in defying Jove and in asserting unconquerable 

will (^sch. Prom. Vinct. 992-7, 1002-6) is quite similar. What evidence that 

Milton had Prometheus in mind in other passages of Par. Lost? — 107. 

Study. The critics will have it that Milton here uses this word (like 

studies iji Shakes., 1 Henri/ IV., I, 3 to signify endeavor or desire. But is 

this necessary ? — 109. Some few interpret this line as if it read. Not to be 

^ overcome — what is it but this? But the majority explain it as meaning, 

If anything else is incapable of being overcome, that is not lost. — 110. That 



20 PARADISE LOST. 

Extort from me. To bow and sue for grace 

With suppliant knee, and deify his power 

Who, from the terror of this arm, so late 

Doubted his empire — that were low indeed ; 

That were an ignominy and shame beneath 115 

This downfall : since, by fate, the strength of gods 

And this empyreal substance cannot fail ; 

Since, through experience of this great event, 

In arms not worse, in foresight much advanced, 

We may with more successful hope resolve 120 

To wage, by force or guile, eternal war. 

Irreconcilable to our grand foe. 

Who now triumphs, and in the excess of joy 

Sole reigning holds the tyranny of Heaven." 

So spake the apostate angel, though in pain,^ 125 

Taunting aloud, but racked with deep despair : 

\ 
glory. This may refer to what precedes, and mean * that ground for glory- 
ing '; or it may refer to what follows, the glory of making one 'bow and sue 
for grace,' etc. Which is preferable ? Why ? — 112. Suppliant. Root- 
meaning of this word? — 114. Empire. The Lat. impermm means often 
' supreme authority, governing power.' The meaning here ? — 115. Ignominy. 
To scan this line, which offends the ears of some critics, they direct that here 
and in Shakespeare this word shouhl be pronounced as a trisyllable ; but 
may Milton make this tliird foot an amphibrach? or the fourth an anapest ? 
— 116. Downfall. "Here," says Keightley, "we are to understand, 'We 
therefore will not do it.'" Fate. What was the classical conception of 
fate ? — 117. Empyreal substance. Satan assumes that the angels are inde- 
structible. In the lines 17^071 the Circumcision, Milton, addressing the flam- 
ing Powers, speaks of their ' fiery essence.' In the highest heaven the p\ire 
element of fire, the most sublime of substances, was supposed to exist. The 
Greek ovaia, ousia, essence, is Lat. substantia. Besides Ps. civ. 4, "He 
maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flame of flre," what can you quote 
favoring this notion ? So the empyrean = the fiery ; Gr. f/x-trvpos, empyros. of 
fire. — 122. Grand. Meaning ? How used in a preceding line ? — 123. Tri- 
umphs. Accent 2d syl. So Shakes, accents the word triumphing in Antony 
and Cleopatra. Excess. Milton does not forget to make Satan * the father of 
lies.' — 121. Tyranny (Gr. ry^aj/j/ia, tyrannia, sovei'eignty usurped). What 
was a ' tyrant ' in Greece ? "Satan probably uses 'tyranny ' in an invidious 
sense." Keightley. — 125. Apostate (Gr. diro, apo, from, and (rrrivai, stenai, to 
stand ; airoarcur,!, apostasia, a standing aloof, defection, apostasy.) An apos- 



PARADISE LOST. 21 

And him thus answered soon his bold compeer : — 

" prince, chief of many throned powers 
That led the embattled seraphim to war 
Under thy conduct, and, in dreadful deeds 130 

Fearless, endangered Heaven's perpetual King, 
And put to proof his high supremacy. 
Whether upheld by strength, or chance, or fate ! 
Too well I see and rue the dire event, 
That with sad overthrow and foul defeat 135 

Hath lost us Heaven, and all this mighty host 
In horrible destruction laid thus low. 
As far as gods and heavenly essences 
Can perish : for the mind and spirit remains 

tate is properly what ? Is the word correctly used in this passage ? The passage 
slightly resembles ^neid, I. 208. —127. Compeer (Lat. comimr; com, togetlier, 
and par, equal: an associated equal), colleague. See 'peers,' line 39. — 128. 
Throned powers. Thrones are mentioned as one of the nine angelic orders. 
St. Paul, in Rom. viii. 38, speaks of 'angels, principalities, powers' ; and in 
Eph. i. 21, he says, ' above all principality, and power, and might, and domin- 
ion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that 
which is to come.' So in Colossians i. 16, he mentions 'thrones, dominions, 
principalities,' and 'powers,' — apparently mighty beings, who possess in 
themselves, as it were, the power of a principality or a kingdom, and are 
called by these suggestive names for want of any others. See 1. 360. — 

129. Embattled, drawn up in battle array. What is the antecedent of 

* that ' ? Seraphim, plural of seraph. The only similar word in Hebrew is 
saraph, to burn ; but Gesenius connects it with an Arabic word signifying 
high, or eminent, exalted. The name occurs nowhere in the Bible, except in 
Isaiah vi. 2 and 6. " Foreign words," says Storr, " when first introduced 
into English, commonly retain the foreign plural ; but gradually adopt English 
plurals ; as seraphim, seraphs, banditti, bandits." Give other illustrations. — 

130. Conduct. Meaning here ? — 131. Perpetual. Probably used, say the 
critics, to avoid the word ' eternal,' which Beelzebub would be unwilling to em- 
ploy. Is there anything in the remainder of this speech to militate against tliis 
construction ? Perpetual (LaX. perpetuus) means holding on uninterruptedly, 
or continuing without intermission. In Milton's Hymn on the Nativity, line 7, 

* perpetual ' appears to be used for everlasting. Discriminate among the syn- 
onymes everlasting, eternal, perpetual, iviviortal. — 132. Put to proof, tested. 
Does it mean, ' tested his high supremacy ' ? or ' tested Avhether his high 
supremacy was upheld by strength,' etc.? — 134. Event (Lat. eventus, 
issue, result, upshot). — 136. Hath lost us, hath lost heaven for us, 
made us lose heaven. — 138. Essences, natures, spirits. — 139. Remains. 



22 PARADISE LOST. 

Invincible, and vigor soon returns, 140 

Though all our glory extinct, and happy state 

Here swallowed up in endless misery. 

But what if he our conqueror (whom I now 

Of force believe almighty, since no less 

Than such could have o'erpowered such force as ours) 145 

Have left us this our spirit and strength entire 

Strongly to suffer and support our pains. 

That we may so suffice his vengeful ire. 

Or do him mightier service as his thralls 

Ey right of war, whate'er his business be, 150 

Here in the heart of hell to work in fire, 

Or do his errands in the gloomy deep 1 

What can it then avail, though yet we feel 

Strength undiminished, or eternal being. 

To undergo eternal punishment V 15S 

Whereto with speedy words the arch-fiend replied : — 

Why the singular ? See in Matt. xvi. 17, "Flesh and blood hath not revealed it 
unto thee." — 140. Returns, and tlierefore will return to us. Keightley. — 
141. Extinct. Supply 'be.' Glory is briglitness, and it is extinguished as 
a flame is put out. (Lat. ex, out, and sti[ii\guh'e, to prick, scratch; quench.) 
— 144. Of force (like Gr. ^la, of necessity), perforce, necessarily. A few 
explain it as depending upon ' almighty,' i. e. ' almighty in respect to force,' and 
the next line somewhat favors this interpretation. (Shakes, uses 'of force' 
as equivalent to perforce, 1 Eenrij IV., II. 3, last line.) — 148. Suffice, be 
sufficient for, satiate, satisfy, glut. Ire. Difference between the language 
of prose and that of poetry ? So ' thralls ' in the next line. — 149. Thralls 
(A. S. thrall, slave). Trench {Study of Words, p. 93) derives it from A, S. 
ihrilian, thyrlian, to bore, pierce; whence comes drill; and he cites the 
custom of piercing the slave's ear, Deut. xv. 17, " Then thou shalt take an 
awl, and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be thy servant 
forever"), slaves, bondmen. — 150. Business, the work he wishes to have 
performed. Shakespeare's line ( Tonjjest, I. 2), 

*To do me business in the veins o' th' earth,' 
may have been in Milton's mind. — 152. The gloomy deep, the same as 
described in Book II. 890 to 910, the abyss of Chaos, 'a dark illimitable 
ocean.' Is it that state of things referred to in Gen. i. 2, "And the earth 
was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep " ? — 
155. To undergo. On what does this grammatically depend ? on ' avail ' ? or 
' strength ' 'i — 156. Speedy words. Not the ' winged words,' cTrea irrepoevTa, 



PARADISE LOST. 23 

" Fallen cherub ! to be weak is miserable, 
Doing or suffering ; but of this be sure, 
To do aught good never will be our task, 
But ever to do ill our sole delight, i6o 

As being the contrary to his high will 
Whom we resist. If then his providence 
Out of our evil seek to bring forth good. 
Our labor must be to pervert that end. 
And out of good still to find means of evil ; 165 

Which oft-times may succeed, so as perhaps 
Shall grieve him, if I fail not, and disturb 
His inmost counsels from their destined aim. 
But see ! the angry victor hath recalled 
His ministers of vengeance and pursuit 170 

epea pteroenta, of Homer; but speedy in the sense of immediate. Beelzebub 
seemed sinking into despair, and Satan hastened to change the current of 
his thoughts ? — 157. Cherub. Properly a being of composite form ? com- 
bining what qualities of man, lion, ox, and eagle ? The student will do well 
to examine what is said of Cherubim in Gen. iii. 24 ; Exod. xxv. 18-22 ; 
1 Kings vi. 23-35 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 11; Ps. xviii. 10; Ezekiel i. and x. The 
seraphs, according to the schoolmen, were pre-eminent in the ardor of their 
love ; the cherubs, in knoioleclge. — 157, To be weak is miserable, doing or 
suffering. This reminds of Milton's sentiment in his letter to a Greek physi- 
cian, "It is not so sad to be blind as not to be able to endure blindness." 
*' Satan in Milton's poem," says Hazlitt, " is not the principle of malignity or 
of the abstract love of evil, but of the abstract love of power, of pride, of self- 
will personified." — 158. Doing or suffering. In II. 199, 200, Belial remarks, 
*'To suffer, as to do, our strength is equal."— 161. Being the contrary. 
Scan the line. — 167. If I fail not. The critics make this equivalent to the 
Lat. nifallor^ if I am not mistaken, if I deceive not myself. Keightley quotes 
from Spenser {Faerie Queene, III. 11. 46) the line, 

' So lively and so like that living sense it failed,' 

where the word has an active sense. "Milton uses the word ten times in Para- 
dise Lost, and always in its ordinary sense, unless this be an exception. See 
117, 633, etc. — 169. But see, etc. " This he probably infers from the calm and 
stillness that now reigned around." Keightley. — 170. His ministers. (See 
Ps. civ. 4, ' his ministers a flaming fire.') Here Bentley points out a contradic- 
tion between Satan's apparent assumption on the one hand, that the good angels 
pursued the bad to the verge of hell (confirmed by Moloch, Book II. 78, 79), and 
the statement of Raphael on the other hand, that all the holy angels stood 



24 PAliADISE LOST. 

Back to the gates of heaven ; the sulphurous hail, 

Shot after us in storm, o'erblown, hath laid 

The fiery surge that from the precii)ice 

Of heaven received us falling ; and the thunder, 

AVinged with red lightning and impetuous rage, 175 

Perhaps hath spent his shafts, and ceases now 

To bellow through the vast and boundless deep. 

Let us not slip the occasion, whether scorn 

Or satiate fury yield it from our foe. 

silent witnesses of the almighty acts of the Messiah in vanquishing, single- 
handed, his foes (Book VI. 882-3). Bentley cites the testimony of Chaos, that 
heaven 'poured forth by millions her victorious bands pursuing ' (Book II. 
997-8). But Milton is consistent with himself ; for, 1st, Satan may have thouglit 
the pursuing terrors and furies, mentioned in Book VI. 859, tohave beenrecalled, 
when, on the contrary, they were inside hell, as appears in Book II. 11. 596, 611, 
628, etc. ; or, 2dly, dazed and thunder-stricken, falling ' headlong, flaming 
from the ethereal sky,' he might have believed his army to have been actually 
pursued by the angels of light ; or, 3dly, as Newton says, Satan may have 
been * too proud and obstinate ever to acknowledge the Messiah for con- 
queror.' The testimony of Chaos is worthless ; for he, in his utter confusion 
(Book VI. 871-2), might well imagine the terrible din to be that of 'a numer- 
ous host' (Book VI. 830). ''The seeming contradiction," says Newton, 
''upon examination, proves rather a beauty than a blemish to the poem." — 
172. O'erblown, blown over, having ceased to be blown. Hath laid, hath 
stilled. So the Greek a-Topew, storeo, and Lat. sterno, are used. What is 
the efl'ect of heavy rain or thick hail on waves ? In Par. Regained, TV. 
428-9, Morning ' with her radiant finger . . . laid the winds.' So in Horace, 
Odes, I. IX. 10, the gods ' lay ' the winds. — 174. The thunder. Thunder is 
here a monster, with lightning wings impelled by rage, a monster that hurls 
fiery shafts, and bellows through the infernal world. " In the extra syllable of 
this line," says Storr, " we seem to hear the rolling thunder." — 176. His. The 
form ' its ' does not occur in the authorized Bible, ' his ' or ' her ' or ' whereof ' 
being used instead. ' It ' was also used as a possessive, where we now use its. 
Craik asserts that Milton never uses his in a neuter sense. Milton uses its in 
1. 254 ; also IV. 813, ' returns, of force, to its own likeness.' — 177. Note the 
]\Iiltonic sonorousness of this remarkable line. Vast is perhaps here waste, 
desolate. — 178. Slip. "The usual and more correct expression," says 
Keightley, "is ' let slip.'" But we still say ' slip a cable.' Dryden uses the 
expression 'slip hounds,' and Ben Jonson says, 'slip no advantage.' Shake- 
speare puts into Macbeth's mouth the words, " I have almost slipped the hour." 
These authorities, with that of Milton, settle the matter. —179. Satiate, 
glutted. This omission of final d is common in Shakes, and in Early English. 



PARADISE LOST. 25 

Seest thou yon dreary plain, forlorn and wild, i8o 

The seat of desolation, void of light 

Save what the glimmering of these livid flames 

Casts pale and dreadful 1 Thither let us tend 

From ofl" the tossing of these fiery waves ; 

There rest, if any rest can harbor there ; 1 85 

And, re-assembling our afflicted powers, 

Consult how we may henceforth most offend 

Our enemy ; our own loss how repair ; 

How overcome this dire calamity ; 

What reinforcement we may gain from hope ; 190 

If not, what resolution from despair." 

Thus Satan talking to his nearest mate. 
With head uplift, above the wavQ, and eyes 
That sparkling blazed ; his other parts besides 
Prone on the flood, extended long and large, 195 

Lay floating many a rood ; in bulk as huge 

Abbott's Shakes. Gram. Si2. — 180. Forlorn and wild. The 'waste and 
wild' of 1. 60. Forlorn (Ger. verloren) is totally lost, abandoned, and hence 
desert, empty. Keightley. — 183. Pale. Probably such a ghastly hue as 
livid ('black and blue ') flame casts on the face. "In Statius, Thebais, I. 57, 
the Styx is livida." Tend, extend our course (Lat. tendere, or tendere cur- 
sum). — Rest, etc. 

'' Here let us rest, if this rebellious earth 
Have any resting." — Richard II., V. I. 5, 6, 
Harbor. To take shelter ? or give shelter ? See Shakes. " Let's harbor here 
in York," and 'any place that harbors men.' A. S. here, army, and heorgan, 
to shelter, lodge; 0. E. herbergage, lodging. — 186. Afflicted (Lat. ajffligere, 
to dash down), beaten down. Powers (as in Macbeth, V. 11. 1, "The Eng- 
lish power is near," and often in Shakes. ), forces, troops. — 187. Offend. In 
what sense ? — 190. Reinforcement. What kind, moral or physical ? — 191. 
If not. Supply 'any.' Bentley would read 'if none.' —192. Thus. Adver- 
bial modifier of what ? Classic usage ? — 193. Uplift. See note on 179. The 
omission is for euphony. See Ps. xxiv. 7. — 195. Sparkling blazed. Of the 
Old Dragon, Spenser says {.Faerie Queene, III. xi. st, 46), "His blazing eyes 
. . . sparkled living fire." See ^7ieid, 11. 206-210. — 194. Other parts 
besides. 'Besides' seems to be superfluous after ' other ' ; but probably it 
would not have been so regarded in Milton's day. In Matt. xxv. 22, we read, 
"Thou deliveredst unto me two talents; behold, I have gained two other 
talents besides them." We still use 'moreover' in a similar way. — 196. 



26 PARADISE LOST. 

As whom the fables name of monstrous size, 

Titanian or earth-born, that warred on Jove, 

Briareos or Typhon, whom the den 

By ancient Tarsus held ; or that sea-beast 200 

Leviathan, which God of all his works 

Cheated hugest that swim the ocean-stream : 

Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam, 

The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff 

Rood (Dutch roede, a measure of ten feet in land-surveying. Wedgivood). 
Often used in Old Eng. for rod. But square measure seems better here than 
long ; as in jEneid, VI. 596, the earth-born giant, Tityos, extends over nine 
jugera {ajugeriun being about five eighths of an acre). — 197. Fables, Greek 
myths? — 198. Titanian (' genus antiquum Terrce, Titania pubes,' the ancient 
race of earth, Titanian offspring, jEneid, VI. 580). The Titans were sons of 
Uranus (heaven) and Gaia (earth). They deposed Uranus, but were cast out 
of Olympus by Zeus (Jove). — 199. Briareos (the strong one, the mighty), 
quadrisyl. as the long requires, though the old poets, for the sake of the 
metre, shortened reos to one syl. Says Keightley, " Milton makes a mistake 
as to Briareos, who was one of the hundred-handed (not of the Titans) and 
helped the gods." But Milton follows tlie account in Virgil {^neid, X. 567, 
568), pretty good authority, who says expressly that ^Egseon, the hundred- 
handed, fifty-mouthed (identified by Homer with Briareos), fought against 
Jove. His brothers were Gyges and Cottus, each hundred-handed and fifty- 
headed. Hesiod makes them all sons of Uranus and Gaia, like the twelve 
Titans, Typhon (smoking), same as Typhoeus, youngest son of Gaia, located 
by Pindar and^scliylus in Cilicia. Briareos and Typhon we may regard as 
personifications of volcanic forces. Virgil calls the sun Titan, and the stars 
Titanian. — 201. Leviathan. This beast in Ps. civ. 26, seems to be some 
sea monster of the whale kind. In Job xli. it is mucli like the crocodile, 
though the description does not wholly suit. Perhai)s Milton conceived of a 
monster like some whose gigantic remains are the wonder of geologists. — 
202. Hugest. The movement in the rhythm of this line is happily analogous 
to that of the monster described? Ocean-stream (the Homeric 'nKeoj'<Js 
•K0Ta/x6s, okeanos potamos, which was supposed to encircle all the lands of 
the earth. Hazlitt thinks that in Milton's imagination the monster seemed 
so vast that the ocean dwindled to a stream ! ) — 203. Him. etc. Olaus 
Magnus (1490-1568), a Swede who wrote a Latin 'History of the Northern 
Nations,' has much to say of anchoring on whales, kindling fires on them, etc. 
So in the first voyage of Sindbad in The Arabian Nights ! See Ariosto's Orl. 
Fu. VI. 37. —204. Pilot (Low Ger. peilen, to sound, n»/isur8'|:" Du. loot, 
plummet; hence the thrower of the lead). Keightley sa&|ats that it may 
be from irejpoTTjs, a pirate! Night-foundere^( Fr. fon^, to sink; to 
founder is to be filled with water and sink as a shflP^unk into darknoss. This 



I 



PARADISE LOST. 27 

Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell, 205 

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind, 

Moors by his side under the lee, while night 

Invests the sea, and wished morn delays. 

So stretched out huge in length the arch-fiend lay, 

Chained on the burning lake ; nor ever thence 210 

Had risen or heaved his head, but that the will 

And high permission of all-ruling Heaven 

Left him at large to his own dark designs, 

That with reiterated crimes he might 

Heap on himself" damnation, while he sought 215 

Evil to others ; and, enraged, might see 

How all his malice served but to bring forth 

Infinite goodness, grace, and mercy, shown 

On man by him seduced, but on himself 

Treble confusion, wrath, and vengeance poured. 220 

Forthwith upright he rears from off the pool 
His mighty stature ; on each hand the flames, 
Driven backward, slope their pointing spires, and, rolled 

beautifully poetic epithet (used also in Comus, 483) is censured as improper by- 
some of the prosy critics. They talk of 'foundered horses,' and ships * springing 
a leak ' ! Skiff. Kind of craft ? — 266. Scaly, incrusted. " Bentley justly ob- 
serves that whales have no scales " ! Keightley. Poets fare hard at the hands of 
ichthyologists and learned Dundrearies, Olaus (see 1. 203) says the whale ' has 
on his hide a surface like the gravel on the sea-shore.' — 207. Under the lee 
(A. S. hUo, shelter), under the shelter of the shore, on the side sheltered from the 
wind. Yet half the critics make it the other side, and censure Milton for 'affec- 
tation' or 'impropriety' in the use of nautical terms ! — 208. Invests (Lat. 
vestis ; Sans, 'vas; Gr. Feadrjs, garment), robes. In Par. Lost, III. 10, 11, lir/ht 
invests, *as Avith a mantle,' the world of waters. So IV. 609. Wished. With 
transitive verbs we use the preposition more than the Elizabethan writers 
did. Abbott's Shakes. Gram. 200. — 209. This line analogous to what it 
describes ? — 210. Chained. " Servile adherence to the letter of Scripture." 
Keightley. See 2 Pet. ii. 4 ; Jude 6 ; Rev. xx. 1 ; Par. Lost, I. 48, II. 169, 
IV. 965. Is the conception incongruous ? What are symbolized by chains ? 
Remorse? fear? shame? — 211-213. Satan must be free, for the reasons 
so concisely and sublimely stated. — 219. On man. Why on rather than to ? 
— 220. Rom. ii. 5, 'Treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of 
wrath.' — 221. Fool. Etymology of the word? Milton several times calls 
the Sea of Azof a pool ; also the Dead Sea. — 223. Spires (Gr. (nre7pa, Lat. 



28 PARADISE LOST. 

In billows, leave i' the midst a horrid vale. 

Then with expanded wings he steers his flight 225 

Aloft, incumbent on the dusky air 

That felt unusual weight, till on dry land 

He lights ; if it were land that ever burned 

With solid, as the lake with liquid fire. 

And such appeared in hue, as when the force 230 

Of subterranean wind transports a hill 

Torn from Pelorus, or the shattered side 

Of thundering ^tna, whose combustible 

And fuelled entrails, thence conceiving fire. 

Sublimed with mineral fury, aid the winds, 235 

And leave a singed bottom all involved 

With stench and smoke. Such resting found the sole 

Of unblest feet. Him followed his next mate, 

spira, a coil, or spire, any body that shoots out taperingly to a point). — 227. 
Felt unusual weight. Thyer quotes Faerie Queene, I, xi. 18, where the air 
is almost ' too feeble ' to ' bear so great a weight ' as the Old Dragon flying. — 
230. Hue. What hue? — 231. Wind in this line, vnnds in I. 235 ; because 
in the latter verse the winds rush in from every side and are * aided ' 
[increased] ; in the former the wind is single. — Pelorus. The N. E. cape 
of Sicily, now Cape Faro, not far from ^tna, and the place where, accord- 
ing to Ovid, the right hand of Typhon (or Typhoeus) is buried. The 
Clar. Press ed. cites approvingly Keightley's assertion that there is no 
'account of Pelorus being affected by earthquakes or by the eruptions 
of iEtna'! They forget their Virgil. "These places, once convulsed with 
violence and with vast ruin, leaped apart, the sea came violently between them, 
and severed the Italian from the Sicilian shore." See JEneid, III. 411, 414, 
416, etc. The strait is now about a mile and a half wide, — 233. Thundering 
JEtna. Tonat JEtna, Mino, thunders, says Virgil. See the passage, ^'Eneid, 
III. 571 to 578. — 234. Fuelled (Gr. irvp ; A. S. fyr; Ger. feuer; Fr. feu, 
fire; Lat./oc^w, fireplace ; Low Lat. /oc«7e ; Nor. Fr. fiiayl, fuel), supplied 
with fuel. Thence. Whence ? Conceiving fire, 'catching fire' (as in Lat. 
cnncipirc ignem). —235. Sublimed ( Lat. sublimis, lifted, high ; to sublime is to 
bring by heat into a state of vapor and condense again by cold), forced aloft 
(or, perhaps, reduced by sublimation to a powder, as flowers of sulphur). — 
236. Involved with. Shakes, uses with for in (Sonnet XXIII.). The mean- 
ing of the two expressions is slightly diff'erent : with implies a more confused 
mixture of solids with gases ; in, an enveloping of solids by gases. Which 
better suits Milton's idea? — 238. Unblest feet. Ignoring Milton's purpose 
to assemble the reljel army on this burning soil, Ruskui says (and the Clar. 



PARADISE LOST. 29 

Both glorying to have scaped the Stygian flood 

As gods, and by their own recovered strength, 240 

Not by the sufferance of supernal power. 

" Is this the region, this the soil, the clime," 
Said then the lost archangel, " this the seat 
That we must change for heaven 1 — this mournful gloom 
For that celestial light 1 Be it so ! since he 245 

Who now is sovran can dispose and bid 
What shall be right : farthest from him is best, 

Press eel. quotes it without comment) as follows : *' All this [lines 228 to 238] 
is far too detailed, and deals too much with externals ; we feel rather the form 
of the fire- waves than their fury ; we walk upon them too securely, and the 
fuel, sublimation, smoke, and singeing, seem to me images of only partial 
combustion ; they vary and extend the conception, but they lower the ther- 
mometer . . . fail of making us thoroughly unendurably hot. The essence 
of fire is not there. Now hear Dante " (the italics are Ruskin's) — 
" Feriami '1 Sole in su I'omero destro 

Che gia, raggiando, tutto I'Occidente 

Mutava in bianco aspetto di cilestro : 

Ed io facea con Vombra piu rovente 

Barer la Jiamma" — Purg. XXVI. 4-8. 

[On the right shoulder smote me now the sun, that, raying out, changed all 
the West from azure aspect into white, and with my shadow I made the flame 
appear more red.] Ruskin continues : " This is a slight touch ; he has not 
gone to iEtna nor Pelorus for fuel ; but we shall not soon recover from it, — 
he has taken our breath away and leaves us gasping. No smoke or cinders 
there. Pure, white, hurtling, formless flame; very fire-crystal, we cannot 
make spires nor waves of it, nor divide it, nor walk on it ; there is no ques- 
tion about singeing soles of feet. It is lambent annihilation." (Ruskin's 
Mod. Painters, Part III. 2, 3.) Whatever may be thought of Ruskin's 
extraordinary interpretation of Dante, it is not clear that he understands 
Milton ! As if degree of hotness were the thing that Milton should have 
aimed to depict ! (Milton seems to have had the passage from Dante in 
mind in Par. Lost, XI. 205-6.) — 239. Stygian. The Styx (hate) being 
a river of hell, Stygian is i7ifer7iaL—2iO. Sufferance. So Ajax (in Odj/s- 
seij, IV. 503) declared that he would escape the great gulf of the sea in 
spite of the gods ! — 244. Change for heaven, a Latinism for ' change 
heaven for,' 'change' being equivalent to 'receive in exchange' (like Lat. 
viutare). See Hor. Odes, I. xvii. 1 ; III. I. 47. — 246. Sovran (Lat. superyms, 
superus, above ; super, over ; Fr. souverain ; Sp. soherano ; It. sovrano, 
sovereign). — 247. Farthest. The Greeks had a proverb, " Far from Jupiter, 



30 PARADISE LOST. 

Whom reason hath equalled, force hath made supreme 

Above his equals. Farewell, happy fields. 

Where joy forever dwells ! Hail, horrors ! hail, 250 

Infernal world ! and thou, profoundest Hell, 

Eeceive thy new possessor ! one who brings 

A mind not to be changed by place or time. 

The mind is its own place, and in itself 

Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. 255 

What matter where, if I be still the same, 

And what I should be, all but less than he 

Whom thunder hath made greater 1 Here at least 

We shall be free : the Almighty hath not built 

Here for his envy ; will not drive us hence : 260 

Here we may reign secure, and, in my choice 

To reign is worth ambition, though in hell : 

Better to reign in hell, than serve in heaven ! 

But wherefore let we then our faithful friends, 

The associates and copartners of our loss, 265 

Lie thus astonished on the oblivious pool, 

and from his thunder, too." — 248. Reason. Intellect ? or the reason of 
things, the constitution or fitness of things ? Force hath. Keightley suggests 
that Milton perhaps dictated had. Which is preferable ? — 249, 250. What 
considerations or ingredients intensify the pathos here? — 253, 254, etc. So 
Horace's " Coelum non animuni mutant, qui trans mare currunt," They change 
sky, not mind, who run across the sea ; and Shakes, says, " There's notliing, 
either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." Faustus, in Marlowe's power- 
ful tragedy, on being asked how he escaped from liell, exclaim'^; " Why, this 
is hell, nor am I out of it" ; and still more terribly Satan exclainis (Par. Lost, 
IV. 75), " Which way I fly is hell, myself am hell ! " See IV. 20-23. Its 
own place. Milton uses its but three times ; the word was just coming into 
use, but was wliolly avoided in King James's Bible, and occurs verj' rarely in 
Sliakespeare. — 257. All but less. Supreme, except that I am less ? New- 
ton proposed to read albeit. — 258. Whom thunder, etc. "There is a fine 
scorn in this phrase." Ross. — 260. For his envy. A grim mirth ! — 262, 263. 
The energy of these lines is superhuman. Tliey voice the inmost soul of Satan, 
and strikingly contrast it with the spirit of Achilles (in Odijs. XI. 489, etc.), 
who would rather be a slave to the poorest hind on earth than reign monarch 
of the dead ! Similar is the sentiment of Prometheus in iEschy. Prom. V. 
1002. — 265. So ' co-mates and brothers in exile ' in Shakes. As Yoic 
Like It. — 266. Astonished (Lat. attonare, to thuuderstrike ; tonitru, thun- 



PARADISE LOST. 31 

And call them not to share with us their part 

In this unhappy mansion, or once more 

With rallied arms to try what may be yet 

Eegained in heaven, or what more lost in hell 1 " . 270 

So Satan spake, and him Beelzebub 
Thus answered : " Leader of those armies bright 
Which, but the Omnipotent, none could have foiled, 
If once they hear that voice — their liveliest pledge 
Of hope in fears and dangers, heard so oft 275 

In worst extremes, and on the perilous edge 
Of battle when it raged, in all assaults 
Their surest signal — they will soon resume 
New courage and revive, though now they lie 
Grovelling and prostrate on yon lake of fire, 280 

As we erewhile, astounded and amazed ; 
No wonder, fallen such a pernicious highth ! " 

He scarce had ceased, when the superior fiend 
Was moving toward the shore ; his ponderous shield 
Ethereal temper, massy, large, and round, 285 

Behind him cast. The broad circumference 
Hung on his shoulders like the moon, whose orb 
Through optic glass the Tuscan artist views 
At evening from the top of Fesole 
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 290 

der ; Fr. etonner, akin to A. S. dyne, Icel. dyn, thunder, and to stunian, to 
stun?), thunderstruck, bewildered, confounded. Oblivious, causing oblivion, 
stupefying. — 267. Share. As colonists shared lands ? — 268. Mansion 
(manere, to remain), abiding-place. — 276. And on = and especially on. A 
classic usage. Edge (A. S. ecge; Gr. o/cr?; Lat. acies, edge, line of battle), the 
fore-front. Others define it crisis. Your preference ? — 281. Erewhile {ere, 
afore ; rohile, time), aforetime. Astounded, same force as astonished, 1. 266. — 
282. Fallen, i. e. fallen from. Pernicious {ha.i. per, thoroughly; necare, to 
kill; nex, violent death), destructive. — 285. Temper. Syntax ? — 286. Cir- 
cumference. Metonymy? or synecdoche ?— 287. Moon, i. e. as it appears 
magnified?— 288. Artist, one skilled in an art in Avhich science and taste are 
preeminent ? Tuscan. Story of Galileo and his telescope ? Milton's visit to 
him? — 289. Fesole (Lat. Faesulae; Ft. Fiesole, the hill above Florence).— 
290. Valdarno (It. val, valley ; d'Aryio, of the river Arno). Location ? 



32 PARADISE LOST. 

Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe. 

Ilis spear — to equal which the tallest pine, 

Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast 

On some great ammiral, were but a wand — 

He walked with, to support uneasy steps 295 

Over the burning marie, not like those steps 

On heaven's azure ; and the torrid clime 

Smote on him sore besides, vaulted with fire. 

Nathless he so endured, till on the beach 

Of that inflamed sea he stood, and called 300 

His legions, angel forms, who lay entranced 

Thick as autumnal leaves that strow the brooks 

In Vallombrosa, where the Etrurian shades 

High over-arched imbower ; or scattered sedge 

Afloat, when with fierce winds Orion armed 305 

Hath vexed the Red Sea coast, whose waves overthrew 

Busiris and his Memphian chivalry, 

292. To equal which = in comparison with which. Write out the proportion : 
As a wand to the tallest pine, so — ? Pine. ' The dark Norway pine ' is famous 
ill poetry. — 294. Ammiral ( Ar. amir, or e?n?>, lord ; al, the ; Ital. ammiraglio, 
flag-ship), principal vessel, any large ship. See Odys. IX. 322 ; so uEneid^ III. 
659, where the trunk of a pine steadies the steps of the Cyclops. — 296. Marie, 
soft clayey soil. Conceive this gigantic being sinking at every step in the fiery 
mire! — 297. Azure. "Having the visible heaven in his mind, he forgets 
that he had quite a different idea of the ground of heaven." *Keightlei/. Not 
so ; there is such a thing as poetry. Besides, the angelic step was light : 
" High above the ground their march was, and the passive air upbore their 
nimble tread" ! VI. 71-73. —299. Nathless (A. S. natheles^ net, not), none 
the less. Frequent in early English. — 302. Strow ( Lat. sierno, stravi), 
strew. — 303. Vallombrosa ( Lat. vcdlis ; Ital. valle, vale ; Lat. nvibra, shade ; 
Ital. ombroso, shady), the shady valley. Vallombrosa, in sight of Florence, 
thougli eighteen miles distant, visited by Milton in September, 1838. "The 
natural woods," says Wordsworth, " are deciduous, and spread to a great ex- 
tent." See jEneid, VI. 309 — souls ' as numerous as the leaves that fall in the 
first chill of autumn.' — 304. Sedge, sea-weed. The Hebrew name of the 
lied Sea means ' sea of sedge.' — 305, Orion, a mighty Boeotian hunter, wlio at 
death became a constellation. Storms attended its rising and setting. Armed, 
with sword and club. Euripides calls him 0<t>VpVS, xipheres, armed with 
sword ; Virgil speaks of liini as armaliim auro, armed with gold, and nim- 
bustis, stormy. —307. Busiris. Pharaoh being a mere title like Czar, Mil- 



1 



PARADISE LOST. 33 

While with perfidious hatred they pursued 

The sojourners of Goshen, who beheld 

From the safe shore their floating carcasses 310 

And broken chariot-wheels. So thick bestrown, 

Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood, 

Under amazement of their hideous change. 

He called so loud that all the hollow deep • 

Of hell resounded : — " Princes, Potentates, 315 

AVarriors, the flower of heaven, once yours, now lost, 

If such astonishment as this can seize 

Eternal spirits ! Or have ye chosen this place 

After the toil of battle to repose 

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find 320 

To slumber here, as in the vales of heaven 1 

Or in this abject jDOsture have ye sworn 

To adore the conqueror, who now beholds 

Cherub and seraph rolling in the flood 

With scattered arms and ensigns, till anon 325 

His swift pursuers from heaven-gates discern 

The advantage, and, descending, tread us down 

Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts 

Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf? — 

Awake, arise, or be forever fallen ! " 330 

ton follows Raleigh in singling ont Busiris as the oppressor of the Israelites, 
a cruel Egyptian king slain by Hercules. See Exod. xiv. Memphian. Mem- 
phis, out of whose ruins Cairo was built, was one of the oldest and largest 
cities. Chivalry, cavalry. Ital. cavalleria ; Fr. chevalerie ; fr. Fr. cheval, 
horse; Jjat. caballus, wag. — S08. Perfidious. How so? — 309. Sojourners. 
Why so called ? Goshen. Which part of Egypt;? Gen. xlvii, 1. Beheld. 
Exod. xiv. 30, 31. — 312. Abject (Lat. ahjecti, cast down, prostrated). — 313. 
Amazement, utter bewilderment, stupor. Of. Meaning ? — 315, Princes, 
etc. In this Avonderfully sublime speech, three degrees of rank are recognized, 
princes, potentates, and warriors. — 317. Astonishment, the utter con- 
fusion or insensibility of one thunderstruck. — 320. Virtue ( Lat. virtus, 
manliness), valor, strength. For, on account of. — 325. Anon (A. S. on, in; 
an, one), in one moment, soon. — 328. Linked. 'Like chain shot'? Linked 
thunderbolts ^= ' chain lightning ' ? — 330. Tlie intensity and sublimity of 
this appeal are hardly equalled in literature. Point out its constituent quali- 



34 PARADISE LOST. 

They heard, and were abashed, and np they sprung 
Uj)on the wing ; as when men, wont to watch, 
On duty sleeping found by whom they dread, 
Itouse and bestir themselves ere well awake. 
Nor did they not perceive the evil plight 335 

In which they were, or the fierce pains not feel ; 
Yet to their general's voice they soon obeyed, 
Innumerable. As when the potent rod 
Of Amram's son, in Egypt's evil day, 
Waved round the coast, up called a pitchy cloud 340 

Of locusts, warping on the eastern wind, 
That o'er the realm of impious Pharaoh hung 
Like night, and darkened all the land of Nile ; 
So numberless were those bad angels seen 
Hovering on wing under the cope of hell, 345 

'Twixt upper, nether, and surrounding fires ; 
Till, as a signal given, the uplifted spear 
Of their great sultan waving to direct 
Their course, in even balance down they light 
On the firm brimstone, and fill all the plain ; 350 

A multitude like which the pojDulous North 

ties. — 335. Nor . . . not. As often in Latin two negatives make an em- 
phatic positive. — 337. To . . . obeyed. To is thus used with oie^ in Rom. 
vi. 16. —338. Potent rod. Exod. iv. 2, 17; viii. 5; x. 12-15, etc. —339. 
Amram's son. Exod. vi. 20. — 340. Pitchy. Sense? Dark as pitch or tar ? 
— 341, Warping (A, S. weaiyian, to cast, turn, twist, wind). Working 
tliemselves forward like successive waves? Webster, quoting this passage, 
defines the word loarj), 'To fly with a bending or waving motion ; to turn and 
wave like a Hock of birds or insects.' Tlie word usually means to turn or be 
turned out of a straight line. Says Keightley, " Milton here uses this term 
of art improperly." Keightley's mistake is in supposing that Milton uses 
'warping' in the rare technical sense which the word bears in navigation, a 
sense never found in Shakes, nor Milton. — 343. Darkened. " The land was 
darkened." Exod. x. 15. — 345. Cope. Same root as cap 1 — 347. Till, as a 
signal, etc. "A falconer recalling his hawk by waving the lure seems to 
have been in the poet's mind," remarks Keightley. More likely he tliought 
of Joshua's outstretched spear near Ai ? Josh. viii. 18, 19, 26. —350. Brim- 
stone. Color and nature of this soil?— 351. Note the threefold imagery 
used to picture these angels on the lake, in the air, and on the plain ! Popu- 



PARADISE LOST, 35 

Poured never from her frozen loins to pass 

Khene or the Danaw, when her barbarous sons 

Came like a deluge on the south, and spread 

Beneath Gibraltar to the Libyan sands. 355 

Forthwith from every squadron and each band 

The heads and leaders thither haste where stood 

Their great commander ; godlike shapes, and forms 

Excelling human ; princely dignities ; 

And powers that erst in heaven sat on thrones, 360 

Though of their names in heavenly records now 

Be no memorial, blotted out and rased 

By their rebellion from the books of life. 

Nor had they yet among the sons of Eve 

Got them new names ; till, wandering o'er the earth, 365 

Through God's high sufferance for the trial of man, 

By falsities and lies the greatest part 

Of mankind they corrupted to forsake 

God their Creator, and the invisible 

Glory of him that made them to transform 370 

Oft to the image of a brute, adorned 

With gay religions full of pomp and gold, 

lous North, Avhat Sir William Temple calls 'the northern hive,' whence Goths, 
Franks, and Vandals came swarming. — 353. Rbeue (Lat. Rhenus, Rhine). So 
Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 21. Danaw (Ger. Donau, Danube). —355. Be- 
neath (like Lat. infra), south of. In 429 a. d. the Vandals pushed their con- 
quests into Africa ? Libyan. African. — 356. Squadron (Lat. quatuor, 
four ; quadra, square ; Fr. escadron. Note that our military terms are almost 
all from the French). Same as 'squared regiment,' I. 758? — 360. Erst. 
Etymology ? — 361. Though of their names, etc. In Ps. ix. 5, 6, Ave read, 
"Thou hast put out their name forever and ever. . . . Their memorial is 
perished with them." In Rev. xx. 12, " And the books were opened. And 
another book was opened, which is the book of life." See Rev. iii. 5. There 
is a peculiar solemnity in the Miltonic idea that these names shall nevermore 
be pronounced in heaven ! See Par. Lost, V. 559, 560. —365. New names. 
The Christian Fathers believed that the heathen gods were devils in disguise. 
Milton gives this belief ' an ingenious poetic turn,' says Masson. " In the 
course of ages . . . they got them new names." " It is by these names that 
they must, though by anticipation, be called in tlie poem." — 369, 370. In- 
visible glory. See the eloquent statement in Rom. i. 23 ; also Ps. cvi. 20 ; 



36 PARADISE LOST. 

And devils to adore for deities : 

Then were they known to men by various names 

And various idols through the heathen world. 375 

\ Say, Muse, their names then known, who first, who last, 

Roused from the slumber on that fiery couch, 

At their great emperor's call, as next in worth 

Came singly where he stood on the bare strand, 

While the promiscuous crowd stood yet aloof. 380 

The chief were those, who, from the pit of hell 
Roaming to seek their prey on earth, durst fix 
Their seats, long after, next the seat of God, 
Their altars by his altar, gods adored 

Among the nations round ; and durst abide 385 

Jehovah thundering out of Sion, throned 
Between the cherubim ; yea, often placed 
Within his sanctuary itself their shrines, 
Abominations ; and with cursed things 
His holy rites and solemn feasts profaned, 390 

And with their darkness durst affront his light. 

First Moloch, horrid king, besmeared with blood 

Exod. xxxii. — 372. Religions (Lat. religiones), religious rites. —373. Devils. 
See Levit. xvii. 7 ; Dent. xxx. 17 ; Ps. cvi. 37 ; also, especially, 1 Cor. x. 20. 
See Hijmn on the Nativity, st. 19-25. — 375. Idols (Gr. efSwAa, idola, images). 
- 376. Then. When ? Who first, who last. So in the Iliad, V. ^703, 
" Whom first, whom last did Hector lay low ? " So .^neid, XI. 664. — 378. 
Emperor. Other names and titles of Satan in this book ? — 382. Roaming, etc. 
' As a roaring lion, walketh about,' etc., 1 Peter v. 8. — 384. Their altars. So 
Manasseli built them, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 4-7. See, too, Ezekiel xliii. 8. — 387. 
Between the cherubim. " This is incorrect. The throne is . . . borne/;?/ 
the cherubim." So says Keightley, who adds that Milton was led into error by 
tlie Eiig. translation of Ps. Ixxx. 1, etc., "■ where between is inserted." Keight- 
ley confounds that throne, which is called the ' mercy-seat,' with the Hying 
throne seen by Ezekiel ' in the land of the Clialdeans by the river Chebar' ? See 
Ezekiel i. 26 ; Exod. xxv. 22, xxxvii. 7 ; 1 Kings vi. 27, viii. 6 ; Par. Lost, XII. 
253, 254 ; also XT. 2, where ' mercy-seat above' is God's throne in heaven. — 
389. Abominations, ' abominations in the house called by my name,' Jer. vii. 
30 ; E/.ek. vii. 20. — 391. Aifront, confront, face, insult (Lat. frons, foi-ehead ; 
Fi-. ajfronter ; It. aji'rovtarr). So rei)eatedly in Shakes. • as, 'that he may . . . 
affront Ophelia,' Hamlet, HI. I. 30, 31. - 392. Moloch (Hob. 3folcch, king). 



PARADISE LOST. 37 

Of human sacrifice, and parents' tears 

Though, for the noise of drums and timbrels loud, 

Their children's cries unheard, that passed through fire 395 

To his grim idol. Him the Ammonite 

Worshipped in Eabba and her watery plain, 

In Argob and in Basan, to the stream 

Of utmost Arnon. Nor contenf with such 

Audacious neighborhood, the wisest heart 400 

Of Solomon he led by fraud to build 

His temple right against the temple of God 

On that opprobrious hill, and made his grove 

The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence 

And black Gehenna called, the type of hell. 405 

He personifies destructive fire ? See the allusions to the horrible sacrifices to 
him in Lev. xviii. 21 ; Jer. xxxii. 35 ; Ps. cvi. 37, 38. —395. Passed through 
fire. "They kindled it [the hollow brass image of Moloch] with fire, and the 
priest took the babe and put it into the hands of Molech, and the babe gave 
up the ghost. And why was it called Tophet and Hinnom ? Because they 
used to make a noise with drums {tojjhim), that the father might not hear the 
cry of his child and have pity on him. ITojihet is otherwise rendered, ' place 
to be spit on,' or 'place of burning.'] Hinnom, because the babe wailed 
{menahem)." Kimchi. Gehenna, valley of Hinnom, the deep narrow glen 
south of Jerusalem. — 397. Rabba, on the river Jabbok, was the capital city of 
the Ammonites, called ' city of waters ' in 2 Sam. xii. 27. Moab was the 
settled and civilized half of the nation of Lot, and Ammon formed its preda- 
tory and Bedouin section. Smith's Bib. Diet. Down to about the middle 
of the second century B. C, the Ammonites are in close alliance with the 
Moabites. This alliance, and their nomadic character, abundantly acquit the 
poet of any 'slip of memory ' in confusing the territory of the Ammonites 
with that of^the Moabites or Amorites. (Ben-Ammi was son of Lot by Ins 
younger daughter, as Moab was by tlie elder. ) — 398. Argob and Basan, dis- 
tricts lying easterly from the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan. — 399. Arnon, 
a small stream running west into the Dead Sea. See map of Palestine. — 400. 
Neighborhood. Nearness to what ? Wisest heart. Hvpallage ? — 401. Led 
by fraud. Explained, 1 Kings xi. 3, 4, 7, etc. —403. Opprobrious hill. 
In 2 Kings xxiii. 13 it is called Mount of Corruption, or Mount of Destruc- 
tion, or of a Snare. Keightley says, " We know not what led Milton to use 
the term 'opprobrious.' " Dr. Smith [Bih. Diet.) says, " The most southern 
portion of the Mt. of Olives is that usually known as the Mount of Offence. 
. . . The title was bestowed on the supposition that it is the Mt. of Corrup- 
tion on which Solomon erected the high places for the gods of his foreign 



38 PARADISE LOST. 

Next, Chemos, the obscene dread of Moab's sons, 

From Aroer to Nebo and the wild 

Of southmost Abarim ; in Hesebon 

And Horonaim, Seon's realm, beyond 

The flowery dale of Sibma clad with vines, 410 

And Eleale to the Asphaltic pool ; 

Peor his other name, when he" enticed 

Israel in Sittim, on their march from Nile, 

To do him wanton rites, which cost them woe. 

Yet thence his lustful orgies he enlarged 415 

Even to that hill of scandal, by the grove 

Of Moloch homicide, lust hard by hate, 

Till good Josiah drove them thence to helL 

With these came they, who, from the bordering flood 

Of old Euphrates to the brook that parts 420 

wives." Grove. In the old heathen religions, groves play a prominent 
part. Pliny tells us that the first temples were trees. But the word 
rendered 'grove' may have designated the emblematic carved 'pillar' in 
the worship of some of these gods. —406. Chemos, deity of the Moabites, 
often identified with the obscene Greek god Priapus, but sometimes with 
Adonis, Pluto, Mars, Saturn, Bacchus, etc. See Num. xxi. 29; Jer. 
xlviii. 13 ; 1 Kings xi. 7 ; 2 Kings xxiii. 13. He is called god of the Am- 
monites in Judges xi. 24. — 407-11. Aroer, on the river Arnon. Nebo (or 
Pisfjah ?), part of the mountain range called Abarim (opposite Jericho). 
Hesebon (Heshbon), Sibma, Eleal6, easterly from Abarim. Horonaim, site 
unknown, but near by. Seon {Sihon), king of the Amorites, had driven the 
Moabites south of the Arnon before the Israelites reached the promised land. 
See a map showing Abarim, Nebo, Heshbon, etc., mentioned in Num. xxi. 
Isa. XV., Jer. xlviii., etc. Asphaltic pool (Laciis As2)haltites\ the Dead Sea, 
abounding with asj^haltus or bitumen. — 413. Sittim (Heb. Abd-Hasshittim, 
meadowofacacias), inthelandof Moab. — 414. Do. . . rites (Gr. /epo^eXf"', 
hiera rezein ; Lat. facere sacra). Woe. Twenty-four thousand deaths. 
Num. XXV. 9. — 415. Orgies (Gr. ^pyov, ergon, work; or, better, opy-i], orge, 
violent passion), bacchanalian rites, licentious or drunken transports. — 416-17. 
Hill, the ' opprobrious hill/ 1. 403. Lust hard by hate. Never was weightier 
moral condensed into four words. — 418. Josiah drove, etc. How he did it, 
is shown in 2 Kings xxiii. ; 2 Chron. xxxiv. Reigned B. c. 641-672 ? — 
419-20. Bordering flood, the eastern boundary of the Promised Land. "To 
thy seed have I given this land from the river of Egypt unto the great river, 
the river Euphrates." Gen. xv. 18. Old. Mentioned as early as Gen. ii. 14. 
Brook. Besor, perhaps, 1 Sam, xxx. 9 ; or the Wady-El-Arish, the ancient 



PARADISE LOST. 39 

Egypt from Syrian ground, had general names 

Of Baalim and Ashtaroth, those male, 

These feminine : for spirits, when they please, 

Can either sex assume, or both ; so soft 

And uncompounded is their essence pure, 425 

Not tied or manacled with joint or limb, 

Nor founded on the brittle strength of bones. 

Like cumbrous flesh ; but, in what shape they choose, 

Dilated or condensed, bright or obscure, 

Can execute their aery purposes, 430 

And works of love or enmity fulfil. 

For those the race of Israel oft forsook 

Their Living Strength, and unfrequented left 

His righteous altar, bowing lowly down 

To bestial gods ; for which their heads, as low 435 

Bowed down in battle, sunk before the spear 

Of despicable foes. With these in troop 

Came Astoreth, whom the Phoenicians called 

Astarte, queen of heaven, with crescent horns ; 

To whose bright image nightly by the moon 440 

Sidonian virgins paid their vows and songs ; 

In Sion also not unsung, where stood 

Rhinocolura ? — 422. Baalim (Heb- jBaa^, master, the supreme male deity 
of the Canaanites and Phoenicians, often supposed to be the sun-god. 
Plu. Baalim). Judges ii. 11, 13. Ashtaroth. The chief female divinity 
of the same nations, was often regarded as the moon-goddess. (Smith's 
Bib. Diet.; Max Mtiller's Science of Religion; Keightley's Pneumatol- 
ogy.) — 4:23. Spirits, etc. See Psellus, On the 0]}erations of Spirits (1615); 
Burton's Anat. of Melancholy (1621); Wier's De Pracstigiis Daemonum 
(1563). Pope follows Milton, Bape of the Lock, 70. " There is a natural 
proper shape for each spirit, but at its own will, or at the will of the Almighty 
who conti'ols its substance, this may be entirely changed." Himes. This 
power of transformation becomes important in the poem, and, as Addison re- 
marks, is introduced with great judgment and forethought. — 431. Living 
Strength. " Tlie strength of Israel will not lie." 1 Sam. xv. 29. — 435. 
Bestial, brutish in form or spirit. — 436. Bowed down, etc. As stated in 
Judges ii. 12, 14 ; 2 Chron. xxx. 7 ; Ps, cvi. 19-42. — 437. In troop, in 
company. The moon-goddess, Ashtoreth, Astarte of the Phoenicians, came 
with Ashtaroth, the starry host of heaven. — 438. Astoreth. "Solomon 



40 PARADISE LOST. 

Her temple -on the offensive mountain, built 

By that uxorious king whose heart, though large, 

Beguiled by fair idolatresses, fell 445 

To idols foul. Thammuz came next behind, 

Whose annual wound in Lebanon allured 

The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 

In amorous ditties all a summer's day, 

While smooth Adonis from his native rock 450 

Ean purple to the sea, supposed with blood 

Of Thammuz yearly wounded : the love-tale 

Infected Sion's daughters with like heat. 

Whose wanton passions in the sacred porch 

Ezekiel saw, when, by the vision led, 455 

His eye surveyed the dark idolatries 

Of alienated Judah. Next came one 

Who mourned in earnest, when the captive ark 

Maimed his brute image, head and hands lopt off, 

In his own temple, on the grunsel edge, 460 

Where he fell flat and shamed his worshipers : 

Dagon his name, sea-monster, upward man 

And downward fish ; yet had his temple high 

Reared in Azotus, dreaded through the coast 

Of Palestine, in Gath and Ascalon, 465 

And Accaron and Gaza's frontier bounds. 



went after Ashtoreth." 1 Kings xi. 5.— 443. Offensive mountain. See 11.403, 
416. — 444. Large. " God gave Solomon largeness of heart." 1 Kings 
iv. 29. Meaning of ' largeness ' here ? — 446. Idols. '' His Avives turned his 
heart after other gods." 1 Kings xi. 4. Thammuz. 'Women weeping for 
Tanimuz.' Ezek. viii. 14. Identified by St. Jerome with Adonis, slain by a 
boar in Lebanon. Lucian tells of the red soil yearly tingeing the river water. 
See Ov.,Met.X. 726, etc.— 455. Ezekiel saw. Ezek. viii. 14. — 458. In 
earnest. By contrast to what ^rg^cwr^ccZ sorrow? Ark. '' Dagon was fallen 
upon his face before the ark of the Lord, and the head of Dagon and both the 
])alms of his hands were cut off." 1 Sam. v. 4. Other particulars of this ? — 
460. Grunsel (ground; sill, Lat. soZi«>i / Fr. seuil), groxmdsill, threshold. — 
462. Dagon, god of the Philistines. The fish-like form, emblem of frnitful- 
iicss, was appropriately adopted by a maritime people. { Dcu/im = \ii\\e 
fish ?) — 461-6. Azotus, Ashdod, Esdud. Ascalon, Ashkelon. Accaron, 



PARADISE LOST. 41 

Him followed Eimmoii, whose delightful seat 

Was fair Damascus, on the fertile banks 

Of Abbana and Pharphar, lucid streams. 

He also against the house of God was bold : 470 

A leper once he lost, and gained a king, 

Ahaz, his sottish conqueror, whom he drew 

God's altar to disparage and displace 

For one of Syrian mode, whereon to burn 

His odious offerings, and adore the gods 475 

Whom he had vanquished. After these appeared 

A crew who, under names of old renown, 

Osiris, Isis, Orus, and their train. 

With monstrous shapes and sorceries abused 

Fanatic Egypt and her priests to seek 480 

Their wandering gods disguised in brutish forms 

Eather than human. Nor did Israel scape 

The infection, when their borrowed gold composed 

The calf in Oreb ; and the rebel king 

Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan, 485 

Likening his Maker to the grazed ox — 

Jehovah, who in one night, when he passed 

From Egypt marching,^ equalled with one stroke 

Ekron, Akir. See the map for these five chief cities. 1 Sam. vi. 17. — 467. 
Rimmon, a sun-god worshipped by the Syrians of Damascus. Only once 
mentioned in the Bible ? 2 Kings v. 18. ( From Hebrew rimmon, pomegranate, 
sacred to Venus, and emblem of fruitfulness ? or fr. 7'um, high, ' the high one ' ?) 
468. Damascus. Situation? beauty? importance ? — 469. Abana and Phar- 
phar. In 2 Kings V. 12, we see the pride these rivers inspired. Lucid. ''The 
word here gives all the sparkling effect of the most perfect landscape." Haz- 
Utt. — i71. Leper, Naaman. King, Ahaz. See 2 Kings v., xvi. ; 2 Chron. 
xxviii. 23. — 477. Crew. Disparagement intended ? — 478. Osiris, a ' Mani- 
festorof Goodness and Truth,' — often identified with Apis, who was the living 
emblem of Osiris, — was worshipped under the form of a bull ; Isis, his sister 
and wife, the female form of Osiris, porti-ayed as a woman with a cow's horns ; 
Orus, or Horus, god of silence, son of the two former, has a human form with 
a hawk's head. — 479. Sorceries. Allusion to Pharaoh's magicians? — 481. 
Wandering The Greek tradition told how the gods in the war with the 
giants fled to Egypt and hid under the form of beasts. — 483. Borrowed, as 
stated in Exod. xii. 35. — 484-5. Calf. *'They made a calf in Horeb," etc. 



42 PARADISE LOST, 

Both her first-horn and all her hleating gods. 

Belial came last ; than whom a spirit more lewd 490 

Fell not from Heaven, or more gross to love 

Vice for itself. To him no temple stood 

Or altar smoked : yet who more oft than he 

In temples and at altars, when the priest 

Turns atheist, as did Eli's sons, who filled 495 

With lust and violence the house of God ? 

In courts and palaces he also reigns, 

And in luxurious cities, where the noise 

Of riot ascends above their loftiest towers, 

And injury and outrage; and, when night 500 

Darkens the streets, then wander forth the sons 

Of Belial, flown with insolence and wine. 

Witness the streets of Sodom, and that night 

In Gibeah, when the hospitable door 

Exposed a matron, to avoid worse rape. 505 

These were the prime in order and in might : 
The rest were long to tell ; though far renowned 
The Ionian Gods — of Javan's issue held 

Ps. cvi. 19, 20 ; Exod. xii. 35 ; xxxii. 4. Rebel, Jeroboam. Bethel, Dan. 
Seemap. — 488. Marching. Stated in Exod, xii. 31, 42; Ps. Ixviii. 7. — 
489. Bleating, like Amnion, a ram, or Meudes, a goat. The word includes 
lowing, as in II. 494. Exod. xii. 29; Num. xxxiii. 4. — 490. Belial (worth- 
lessness, recklessness, lawlessness. Milton makes it a proper noun, as in 2 
Cor. vi. 15). Than, a preposition here as in Shakespeare, Swift, the Conmiou 
Version of the Bible, Prov. xxvii. 3, etc. — 495. Eli's sons. 1 Sam. ii. 12. 
— 501-2. Sons of Belial, a Scriptural expression, as in Judges xix. 22 ; 
1 Sam. ii. 12. Flown, flowed, overflowed, flooded, flushed. Shakes, used 
' flown ' for flowed, and Si)enser * overflown ' for overflowed. Note that of 
these 'prime 'gods of the Semitic nations, Moloch comes first, Belial last. 
An 3^ special fitness in this? Observe their speeches in Book II. — 503-4. 
Sodom. Gen. xix. 8, 9; Judges xix. 25. Macaulay suspects that Milton was 
thinking of the fast young men of London when lie wrote of the * sons of 
Belial.' Hist, of Enrj. I. p. 360. —507. Long to tell. The Greek writers, 
as also Lucretius, Ovid, Cicero, Dante, Boccaccio, Spenser, Drayton, Byron, 
etc., use this expression or its exact equivalent. — 508-9. Ionian (the lones 
were one of the chief original races of Greece), Grecian. Of (i, e. hj/) Javan's 
issue held (i. e. held to be) gods. Javan, grandson of Noah and fourth son 
of Japhet. Later. Because our ' heaven and earth ' were created after the 



r 



PARADISE LOST. 43 



Gods, yet confessed later than Heaven and Earth, 

Their boasted parents ; — Titan, Heaven's first-born, 510 

With his enormous brood, and birthright seized 

By younger Saturn ; he from mightier Jove, 

His own and Ehea's son, hke measure found ; 

So Jove usurping reigned. These, first in Crete 

And Ida known, thence on the snowy top 515 

Of cold Olympus ruled the middle air, 

Their highest heaven ; or on the Delphian cHff, 

Or in Dodona, and through all the bounds 

Of Doric land ; or who with Saturn old 

ried over Adria to the Hesperian fields, 520 



expulsion of the Semitic gods. Deut. xxxii, 17. — 510. Titan. This was 
Oceanus, eldest of the twelve Titans, and by his birth entitled to succeed his 
father, Uranus, on the throne ? He is called ' Titan ' par excellence by Lac- 
tantius and by Milton, just as ' the mightiest Julius ' is especially styled 
'Cgesar.' Homer calls him 'parent of gods'; Virgil, 'father of Nature' 
(rerum). Besides all the river-gods and water-nymphs, other progeny, an 
* enormous brood,' are his children. It was natural that with Heaven and 
Earth the all-producing Ocean should be mentioned. — 512, Saturn, Cronos 
Time. (Lat. satur, satisfied; Saturnus, the self-sufficient ? Better, perhaps, 
fr. serh-e, satum, to sow ?) Youngest of the Titans, Saturn Avas dethroned by 
his son Jupiter (or Jove ). Lat . Jupiter = Jovis, i. e. Diovis, and pater, father ; 
Gr. Zeis, Zeus, irarvp, pater, father; Zeus-father, or Father-Zeus. — 513. 
Rhea, one of the Titans. See Class. Diet. — 514. Crete, Candia. Ida, a 
mountain near the centre of Crete. " Here Jupiter was born and brought up 
in a cave. — 515. Snowy top. Homer calls Olympus 'snowy,' and 'very 
snowy.' — 516. Olympus (the fabled residence of the gods), a many-peaked 
colossal mountain, 9,700 feet high, on the left bank of the river Peneios in 
Thessaly. Middle air. Above this middle air are clouds, and above the clouds 
the aether. Other clouds below this ' middle air ' shut out the summit from the 
view of mortals. See ' middle flight,' 1. 14. — 517. Delphian. Delphi, the 
seat of the famous oracle of Apollo, was on a steep declivity of Parnassus. 
See Class. Diet. — 518. Dodona, the oldest oracle in Greece and sacred to 
Jupiter. — 519. Doric land. Greece, land of the Dorians, one of the great 
Hellenic races. — 520. Fled. " The Roman poets, who alone speak of this 
event, represent the flight of Saturn as solitary." Keightley. But is it so ? 
The language of Virgil in regard to Saturn is very similar to that which he 
uses in regard to ^neas, and we know that the latter did not come to Italy 
alone. See the passages cited, JEneid, VIII. 319, etc. ; Ov. Fast. I. 235, etc. 
Adria, the Adriatic. Hesperian (eVirepos, hesperus. vesper, evening, west- 



44 PARADISE LOST. 

And o'er the Celtic roamed the utmost isles. 

All these and more came flocking ; but with looks 
Downcast and damp ; yet sucli wherein appeared 
Obscure some glimpse of joy to have found their chief 
^N'ot in despair, to have found themselves not lost 525 

In loss itself ; which on his countenance cast 
Like doubtful hue. But he, his wonted pride 
Soon recollecting, with high words, that bore 
Semblance of worth, not substance, gently raised 
Their fainting courage and dispelled their fears ; 530 

Then straight commands that, at the warlike sound 
Of trumpets loud and clarions, be upreared 
His mighty standard. That proud honor claimed 
Azazel as his right, a cherub tall ; 

Who forthwith from the glittering staff unfurled 535 

The imperial ensign ; which, full high advanced, 
Shone like a meteor streaming to the wind, 
With gems and golden lustre rich emblazed, 
Seraphic arms and trophies ; all the while 
Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds : 540 

era), Italian, so called because west of Greece. — 521. Celtic fields or region, 
France (and perhaps Spain). Isles, British. Utmost, as in 1. 74, farthest. 
522. More. Scandinavian deities ? Turanian ? Indian ? — 526. Loss itself, 
the extremity of loss, the loss of heaven ? Which. Looks of mingled joy and 
despondency ? — 528. Recollecting, re-collecting, collecting anew, recalling ? 

— 529. Gently. Always found in Milton and Shakespeare in its usual sense. 
So is courage in the next line. — 532. Clarion. Differs how from trumpet ? 

— 534. Azazel, ' brave in retreat,' or ' powerful against God.' Others define 
it 'a scape-goat,' as the word is rendered in Lev. xvi. 8, 10, 26. Which is 
most ai^propriate ? Himes identifies Azazel as 'a sort of ^Eolus.' Cherub, 
because cherubs were .s;!/-ow/7. Keightley.—5S6. Advanced. Carried or planted 
in the van (Fr. avancer ; Lat. ab, ante). See shreds and traces of this passage 
iu the peroration of Webster's great speech in reply to Hayne, which well 
ilhistrates how much the finest oratory may owe to the finest poetry. —537. 
Meteor. Gray in liis Bard uses this magnificent simile. — 538-9. Emblazed, 
blazoned, in flaming colors. (A. S. hiaese, a torch.) A term of heraldry. As 
acts of zeal and love are 'emblazed' on the standards of good angels (Par. 
Lost, V. 592-4), so the brave thougli wicked deeds of the rebel angels (VI. 377, 
etc.) were inscribed on their banners, and these inscriptions are perhaps the 
* trophies.' Arms are armorial beaiings, colored devices indicating distinc- 



PARADISE LOST. 45 

At which the imiversal host up sent 

A shout that tore hell's concave, and beyond 

Frighted the reign of Chaos and old Mght. 

All in a moment through the gloom were seen 

Ten thousand banners rise into the air, 545 

With orient colors waving : with them rose 

A forest huge of spears ; and thronging helms 

Appeared, and serried shields in thick array 

Of depth immeasurable. Anon they move 

In perfect phalanx to the Dorian mood 550 

Of flutes and soft recorders ; such as raised 

To highth of noblest temper heroes old 

Arming to battle, and instead of rage 

Deliberate valor breathed, firm, and unmoved 

With dread of death to flight or foul retreat ; 555 

Nor wanting power to mitigate and swage 

With solemn touches troubled thoughts, and chase 

Anguish and doubt and fear and sorrow and pain 

From mortal or immortal minds. Thus they, 

Breathing united force with fixed thought, 560 

tion ? — 542. Shout. Cowper thinks this far surpasses Homer's description 
of the shouts of Greeks and Trojans, 11. XIII., last lines. — 543. Reign 
(Lat. regnuvi, Fr. regne, realm, kingdom. So Chaucer and Spenser). Par. 
Lost, II. 890-916. — 546. Orient (Lat. oriens, rising ; oriri, to rise). Hence 
'rising,' as 'orient sun,' Par. Lost, V. 175; 'eastern,' as 'orient wave,' 
Hymn on the Nativity, 231 ; 'bright,' as in this line. Bronme. Orient 
colors, the colors of the eastern sky at da^^^l ? ' streakings of the morn- 
ing light ' ? — 547. They rally to their respective ' colors.' Other poets 
talk of a ' crop ' or ' field ' of bristling swords or spears ; Milton and Ta?.so 
of a ' forest ' of spears. Now follows a description of a grand muster and 
review. — 548. Serried ( Fr. serre, close-locked), compact, or, perhaps, locked 
together. They form in ' close column.' — 550. Phalanx. The famous Spar- 
tan array as at Mantinea ? Thucyd. V. 70. — Dorian, grave ; as the Lydian 
was soft, and the Phrygian sprightly. The Spartans were of Dorian descent. 
The whole army is consolidated into a corps. — 551. Recorders. "The 
figures of recordei's are straight ; the recorder hath a less bore and a greater, 
above and below." Bacon. — 554. Breathed, ins]>ired. "Music feedeth 
that disposition which it findeth." Bacon. Wliy 'trumpets and clarions' 
in 1. 532, but ' flutes and recorders ' in 1. 551 ? — 558. Effect of this repetition 



46 PARADISE LOST. 

Moved on in silence to soft pipes that charmed 

Their painful steps o'er the burnt soil. And now 

Advanced in view they stand, a horrid front 

Of dreadful length and dazzling arms, in guise 

Of warriors old, with ordered spear and shield, 565 

Awaiting what command their mighty chief 

Had to impose. He through the armed files 

Darts his experienced eye, and soon traverse 

The whole battaHon views, their order due. 

Their visages and stature as of gods: 570 

Their number last he sums. And now his heart 

Distends with pride, and, hardening in his strength, 

Glories : for never, since created man. 

Met such embodied force as, named with these. 

Could merit more than that small infantry 575 

Warr'd on by cranes ; though all the giant brood 

of ' and ' ? — 560, Breathing united force. So in Homer, 'the Abantes 
breathing strength,' 11. II. 536; and "Tlie Achpeans breathing might, ad- 
vanced in silence," 11. III. 8, 9, — 561. Moved on. Technically ' passed in 
review' before the commander-in-chief, Avho had taken his stand by the head- 
quarters colors ? — 563. Horrid (Lat. /io?Tit?u5, bristling. Horace speaks of 
agmina pilis horrentia, columns bristling with javelins), bristling. Front. 
They are in ' line of battle,' in two ranks ? See 1. 616. — 565. Ordered. A 
phrase of drill in Milton's time as in ours, ' order pikes ' being then the equiva- 
lent of our 'order arms'; on which word of command soldiers stand with 
their weapons resting perpendicularly by their sides, the butts on the ground. 
Masson. What evidence exists of Milton's having studied tactics ? — 567. 
Files. As general-in-chief, he passes along the front to see if they ' cover 
files'? — 568. Traverse. He now moves along the flank to see if they are 
* dressed ' into straight lines ? — 571. Sums. Staff officers report ' all present 
or accounted for,' and the aggregate is known! — 572. His for its, note on 
1.254. Hardening-. Like Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. v. 20. —573. Since created 
man = since man was created (Lat. ^^as^ homineni creatum). So Sliakes. 
'after well-entered soldiers,' ^U/'s Well That Ends Well, 11.1.^.-575-6. 
Small infantry, etc. The Pygmies (Gr. irvyixri, pygme, a fist-fight ; wl, 
pyx, fist ; irvyfiaToi, pygmaeoi, ' fistlings.' Uvyfi-f} is also a measure of length, 
from the elbow to the knuckles, or 13^ inches), a fabulous race of dwarfs, Indian 
or Ethiopian, or in the far north, who every spring fight with tlie cranes. 
The latter at last destroy them. See Class. Diet. "What dwarfish races exist 
in the extreme North ? What in Africa ? Addison censures Milton for pun- 



. PARADISE LOST. 47 

Of Phlegra -with the heroic race were joined 

That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side 

Mixed with auxiliar gods ; and what resounds 

In fable or romance of Uther's son 580 

Begirt with British and Armoric knights ; 

And all who since, baptized or infidel, 

Jousted in Aspramont, or Montalban, 

Damasco, or Morocco, or Trebisond, 

Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore 585 

When Charlemain with all his peerage fell 

By Fontarabbia. Thus far these beyond 

Compare of mortal prowess, yet observed 

Their dread commander. He, above the rest 

ning on the word infantry. But is there a pun here ? — 577. Phlegra (Gr. 
(pAeycay to burn ; hence implying a volcanic district), Pallene, a peninsula of 
Macedonia where the giants fought against the gods ? Phlegra in Sicily ? in 
Italy ? — 578. Thebes in Boeotia, famous for the war of " The Seven against 
Thebes," and of the " Epigoni " ; Ilium, seat of the ten years' war, in which the 
gods took sides and fought. See Class. Diet. — 579. Resounds, is loudly cele- 
brated ? — 580. "Cither's. Prince Arthur, son of Uther Pendragon, lived in 
South Wales in the fifth or sixth century ? — 581. Armoric (Celtic ar, on, at; 
Lat. ad ; Celtic 7nor, Lat. mare, the sea), spoken of Brittany or Bretagne in 
the N. W. of France. Knights, * of the Bound Table.' The cycle of Arthurian 
romances is well treated by Tennyson in Idyls of the King. — 582. Baptized, 
Christians ; Infidel, Mohammedans ? — 583-4. Jousted (pronounced and often 
spelled justed. Lat. jiixta, near ; Fr. jouter., to tilt), grappled, pushed with 
lance or sword in mock fight. Aspramont, in Limburg, Netherlands. Mon- 
talban, in Languedoc, France ? Morocco, in N. W, of Africa. Trebisond, 
in Pontus, on the Black Sea. —585. Biserta, ancient Utica (near Carthage), 
whence the Saracens invaded Spain. — 586. Fell. Milton here either follows 
the Spanish romances or uses 'fell' figuratively. At Roncesvalles, in the 
Pyrenees, near Fontarabbia, the rear of Charlemagne's army was annihilated 
by the Basques in 778. He lived till 814. Milton has grouped the wars of 
the Giants, of Thebes, of Troy, of Arthur, and of Charlemagne. What else ? 
— 587-8. Thus far, i. e. though thus far. Beyond compare. An old Eng- 
lish phrase. In the ballad of Helen of Kirconnel we read, ' Helen fair 
beyond compare ! ' Observed, obeyed. So we say, ' observe the rules.' Lat. 
observare. — 589. Above. Tallness in leaders was more admired in ancient 
times than now? Instances? The following description is universally re- 
garded as among the finest in Milton. Point out its excellences. — 591. Yet. 
In this one word we have a hint of what Milton never forgets, that the process 



48 



PARADIS1L LOST. 



In shape and gesture proudly eminent, 590 

Stood like a tower. His form had yet not lost 

All her original brightness, nor appeared 

Less than archangel ruined, and the excess 

Of glory obscured : as when the sun, new-risen, 

Looks through the horizontal misty air, 595 

Shorn of his beams, or, from behind the moon, 

In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds 

On half the nations, and with fear of change 

Perplexes monarchs. Darkened so, yet shone 

Above them all the archangel : but his face 600 

Deep scars of thunder had intrenched , and care 

Sat on his faded cheek, but under brows 

Of dauntless courage, and considerate pride 

Waiting revenge. Cruel his eye, but cast 

Signs of remorse and passion, to behold 

The fellows of his crime, the followers rather 

(Far other once beheld in bliss), condemned 

Forever now to have their lot in pain ; 

Millions of spirits for his fault amerced 

of deterioration is gradual. This fact, too often overlooked, sufficiently an- 
swers the theologians who insist that as God ought to be represented as wholly 
good, so the devil ought to be painted as wholly bad ! Give the latter his 
due! — 592. Her, to avoid 'its,' and (so the critics say) because Lat. /orwa, 
foi-m, is fem. See 'right hand forget her cunning,' Ps. cxxxvii. .5. — 593. 
Archangel. Par. Lost, V. 659, 660, 'he, of the first, if not the first arch- 
angel,' etc. " Lucifer . . . after his fall, was vailed with a grosser sub- 
stance." Nash's /*ierce Penniless (1592). — 597. Disastrous (Lat. (Zw, ill> 
unfavorable ; astrum, star. This word, like 'ill-starred,' 'mercurial,' 'satur- 
nine,' 'jovial,' 'influence,' is a relic of the old belief in astrology), inauspicious. 
598. Half. Why '/ia^/"'? — 601. Intrenched (Fr. trancher, to cut), cut 
into, furrowed, gashed deep. So in Sliakes. ' twenty trenched gashes on 
his head.' Mac/;^;!^, Ill . 4. — 603. Considerate, considering, thoughtful. So 
in Shakes. Pride. Subject of 'sat,' or object of 'of'? — 604. Cruel. A 
trochee may take the i)lace of an iambus. See quotation from Keightley 
in note on Bondage of Rhyming in the preface. Eye. Note the steps 
of this description ; Satan's stature, solidity, dimmed splendor, furrowed 
face, resolute brows, cruel eye ! — 605. Remorse ( Lat. re-, again, mordere, 
to gnaw). Meaning? Repeatedly in Shakes, it means pity. Passion 
(Lat. ^>c<^/, to sull'er ; 2)((^ssio), suflering. Keightley defines it here 'com- 



PARADISE LOST. 49 

Of heaven, and from eternal splendors flung 6io 

For his revolt ; yet faithful how they stood, 

Their glory withered : as, when heaven's fire 

Hath scathed the forest oaks or mountain pines, 

With singed top, their stately growth, though bare, 

Stands on the blasted heath. He now prepared 615 

To speak ; whereat their doubled ranks they bend 

From wing to wing, and half enclose him round 

With all his peers : attention held them mute. 

Thrice he assayed, and thrice, in spite of scorn, 

Tears, such as angels weep, burst forth : at last 620 

Words interwove Avith sighs found out their way. 

" myriads of immortal spirits ! powers 
Matchless, but with the Almighty ! — and that strife 
Was not inglorious, though the event was dire, 
As this place testifies, and this dire change 625 

Hateful to utter ! But what power of mind. 
Foreseeing or presaging, from the depth 
Of knowledge past or present, could have feared 
How such united force of gods, how such 
As stood like these, could ever know repulse ] 630 

passion, feeling.' — 609. Amerced {ha.t. misericordia, pity, from misereri, 
to pity ; and cor, heart ; or, better, from merx, price ; Fr. d merci, Lat. m 
misericordia, at the mercy of a court. Mercy is said to have been origi- 
nally the commntation-money paid for forfeited life. The singular resem- 
blance of our ' am.erce,' in form and meaning, to the Gr. &fiep(r€, amerso, 
is accidental), deprived. — 611. How follows 'behold,' 1. 605.-61:3. 
Scathed (Gr. acr/cTj^rjy? uninjured ; A.S. sceadhian ; Ger. schaden, to hurt), 
blighted, blasted.— 615. Blasted heath. Shakespeare's phrase, Mac. I. 3. 
Note minutely the parts of this magnificent simile. — 616. They bend. Half 
of each wing wheels inward, the whole army making exactly half of a hollow 
square ? Had the square been completed, he would have been in its centre ? — 
618. Attention. The command, Attention! brings a body of troops to per- 
fect stillness. — 619. Thrice, etc. Three is a sacred and favorite number. 
Bentley quotes, " Ter conata loqui, terfietibus ora rigavit" thrice endeavore.l 
to speak, thrice watered the face with weeping. We must vividly conceive of 
this scene, the dismal region, these millions of eyes fixed upon his luminous 
face (and what besides ?) to realize the pathos of this passage. — 621. Inter- 
wove. " All past participles of strong verbs once ended iu en." Storr. — 630. 



50 - PARADISE LOST. 

For who can yet believe, though after loss, 

That all these puissant legions, whose exile 

Hath emptied heaven, shall fail to re-ascend, 

Self-raised, and repossess their native seat ] 

For me, be witness all the host of heaven, 635 

If counsels different, or danger shunned 

By me, have lost our hopes. But he who reigns 

Monarch in heaven, till then as one secure 

Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute. 

Consent, or custom, and his regal state 640 

Put forth at full, but still his strength concealed ; 

"Which tempted our attempt, and wrought our fall. 

Henceforth his might we know, and know our own, 

So as not either to provoke, or dread 

New war, provoked : our better part remains 645 

To work in close design, by fraud or guile, 

What force effected not ; that he no less 

At length from us may find, who overcomes 

By force hath overcome but half his foe. 

Space may produce new worlds ; whereof so rife 650 

There went a fame in heaven that he ere long 

Intended to create, and therein plant 

A generation whom his choice regard 

Should favor equal to the sons of heaven. 

Thither, if but to pry, shall be perhaps 655 

Know repulse. Horace, Od. III. 17, has vMus repulsce nescia, valor that 
knows no repulse. — 633. Emptied. The exaggeration of a braggart and a liar. 
In Rev.xii. 4, we read of a ' great red dragon ' that ' his tail drew the third part 
of the stars of heaven,' Hence the belief that a third of the angels fell, as 
stated in Par. Lost, II. 692 ; V. 710 ; VI. 156. —635. Of heaven. Meaning 
those to Avhom he speaks? or the good angels? or both ? — 636. Different. 
From what ? — 640. State, pomp. — 642. Tempted our attempt. Keightley 
claims to have been the first to recognize in Milton's plays upon words imita- 
tions of Scripture. Par. Lost, I. 606 ; V. 869 ; IX. 11 ; XTI. 78. — 647-8. No 
less (than we have found out his power ?). Ee and us emphatic ? — 650. Space. 
Why * space ' and not ' God ' ? Rife (Ger. reif, ripe), prevalent, frequent. — 
651. Fame. As Addison remarks, this previous fame beautifully exalts the 
human race. — 654. Equal. Syntax? — 655. Thither. The first dednite 



II 



PARADISE LOST, 51 



Our first eruption ; thither, or elsewhere ; 

For this infernal pit shall never hold 

Celestial spirits in bondage, nor the abyss 

Long under darkness cover. But these thoughts 

Full counsel must mature. Peace is despaired ; 660 

For who can think submission 1 War, then, war, 

Open or understood, must be resolved." 

He spake ; and to confirm his words, out-flew 
]\Iillions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs 
Of mighty cherubim : the sudden blaze 665 

Far round illumined hell. Highly they raged 
Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms 
Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war, 
Hurling defiance toward the vault of heaven. 

There stood a hill not far, whose grisly top 670 

Belched fire and rolling smoke ; the rest entire 
Shone with a glossy scurf, undoubted sign 
That in his womb was hid metallic ore. 
The work of sulphur. Thither, winged with speed, 
A numerous brigade hastened ; as when bands 675 

suggestion of the diabolic plot on which the poem hinges ! — 656. Eruption. 
Etymology and meaning ? — 658. Abyss, here, and usually in Pa?-. Lost, Chaos. 
— 660. Despaired (of). So Shakes, says, "Despair thy charm." Macbeth, V. 
vri. So .'think (of) submission,' next line. — 662. Understood. Secret. So 
'understood relations.' Macbeth, III. iv. The kind of war is discussed, Book 
II . 41, 187, etc. The speech closes very grandly. Point out its order of thoughts 
and its rhetorical merits. — &QQ. Illumined. " Another true Miltonic pic- 
ture." Brydges. — 668. Clashed, etc. So Roman soldiers applaud with 
sword smiting shield? — 669. Heaven. "Milton forgets that the scene 
is in Hell." Keightley. No : the defiance is consciously against heaven, 
whose general direction they know, and whose zenith is the very throne of 
God. See III. 57, 58. — 670. To the burning lake and the hot mainland he 
adds a volcano. — 672. Entire translates Lat. totnm, or omne ? — 673. Womb, 
interior. So in Shakes, and Virgil. His. See note, 1. 254. —674. Work, 
etc. Metals were generally supposed to be composed of mercury as a metal- 
lic basis and sulphur as a cement. The plentifulness of ores in the form of 
sulphurets favored this belief? Winged with speed. Make prose of this. — 
675. Brigade (Fr. brigade, troop ; Ital. brigata ; Fr. briguee ; brigue, conten- 
tion ). Our military terms mostly come from the Fr. ; as platoons, companies, 
battalions, brigades, divisions, corps ; two or more of each of these bodies form- 



52 PARADISE LOST. 

Of pioneers, with spade and pickaxe armed, 

Forerun the royal camp, to trench a field, 

Or cast a rampart. Mammon led them on, 

Mammon, the least erected spirit that fell 679 

From heaven ; for even in heaven his looks and thoughts 

"Were always downward bent, admiring more 

The riches of heaven's pavement, trodden gold, 

Than aught divine or holy else enjoyed 

In vision beatific. By him first 

Men also, and by his suggestion taught, 6S5 

Eansacked the centre, and with impious hands 

Eifled the bowels of their mother Earth 

For treasures better hid. Soon had his crew 

Opened into the hill a spacious wound. 

And digged out ribs of gold. Let none admire 690 

That riches grow in hell : that soil may best 

Deserve the precious bane. And here let those 

Who boast in mortal things, and, wondering, tell 

Of Babel and the works of Memphian kings, 

ing one of the next higher. —676, Pioneers (Lat. 2^cs, foot ; Yx.x>ionnier), foot- 
soldiers preceding an army as laborers. " Angels are not promoted by conqjari- 
son with sappers and mhiers." Landor. True ; but Milton's object at this 
instant is perhaps to satirize rather than promote ! — 677. Camp, army. — 
678. Mammon (Syriac, meaning riches). Plutus, Greek god of riches, blindand 
lame, alone of the gods was despised in heaven by Hei-cules as being a friend 
of the bad and a corrupter of the good. He dwelt under Spain in regions full 
of mineral wealth. See Faerie Queene, II. vii ; Matt. vi. 24 ; Luke xvi. 9, 11. 
— 679. Erected. Upright in two senses ? — 682. Gold. Rev. xxi. 21, "The 
street of the city was pure gold." — 683. Aught . . . else ^ anything be- 
sides. — 684. Vision beatific, 'the scholastic phrase for the joys of heaven.' 
In verses On Time, 1, 18, Milton literally translates visio beaiijica, 'happy- 
making sight.' — 686. Centre, the earth itself, not the centre of the earth. 
So repeatedly in Shakes. Impious (Lat. impius, imdutiful to a parent), uu- 
filial. — 688. Better hid. A urum irrepertum et sic melius situm cum terra 
celat, gold undiscovered and so better situated, while the earth hides it. 
Horace, Od. III. iii, 49, Crew. Used disparagingly? — 690. Admire (Lat. 
admiror, to wonder). In hell. So in Spenser, " 'Twas but a little stride that 
did tlie house of riches from hell-mouth divide." — 692. Bane (A. S. bana, mur- 
derer ; destruction). — 694, Babel. Babylon, or the Temi>le of Belus ? See 
Class. Diet. "Works, etc., tlie pyramids ! Memphian. See Class. Diet. — 



PARADISE LOST. 53 

Learn how their greatest monuments of fame, 695 

And strength, and art, are easily outdone 

By spirits reprobate, and in an hour 

What in an age they, with incessant toil 

And hands innumerable, scarce perform. 

Nigh on the plain, in many cells prepared, 700 

That underneath had veins of liquid fire 

Sluiced from the lake, a second multitude 

With wondrous art founded the massy ore, 

Severing each kind, and scummed the bullion dross. 

A third as soon had formed within the ground 705 

A various mould, and from the boiling cells 

By strange conveyance filled each hollow nook j 

As in an organ, from one blast of wind. 

To many a row of pipes the sound-board breathes. 

Anon out of the earth a fabric huge 710 

Bose like an exhalation, with the sound 

Of dulcet symphonies and voices sweet, 

Built like a temple, where pilasters round 

696. Strength = of strength ? or hoiv their strength ?— 698-9. Age . . . 
innumerable. It took 360,000 men nigh 20 years to build one pyramid. — 
700. Cells that were prepared by them for tliis piirpose. — 702. Sluiced, 
conducted in flumes? — 703. Founded, melted (Lat. fxmdere, to pour; Fr. 
/owc?re, to melt). — 704. Bullion (Fr. 5o?u7Zfr, to boil), boiling. Keightley 
makes bullion ^ metallic. Others make it fr. Lat. bulla, a knob, seal, or 
stamp, and ' bullion dross, the uncoined ball or mass of gold.' - 706. Various, 
variously wrought ? Note the difl'erent bands of workmen simultaneously en- 
gaged.— 709, Sound-board, a long box above the wind-chest, divided by 
thin partitions into grooves that rim from the front to the back, conveying 
the wind to the different rows of pipes. The great temple is now finished, 
but is wholly underground! — 710. Anon, etc. These gigantic beings lift the 
shining structure to its place! In 1637 Milton may have witnessed, in a 
coiirt-masque in London, the following scene : " The earth opened, and there 
rose up a richly-adorned palace, seeming all of goldsmith's work, with porticos 
vaulted on pilasters . . . above these ran an architrave, frieze, and cornice 
... a peristylium of two orders, Doric and Ionic." The Stage Condemned, 
1698, quoted by Todd. —711. Exhalation. Points of resemblance ? — 713. 
Temple. Prof. Himes well points out the wonderful similarity to the 
Pantheon. See in our Introduction the extract from Ilimes's Study of 



54 PARADISE LOST. 

Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid 

With golden architrave ; nor did there want 715 

Cornice or frieze, with bossy sculptures graven : 

The roof was fretted gold. Not Babylon 

Nor great Alcairo such magnificencCj 

Equalled in all their glories, to enshrine 

Lelus or Serapis their gods, or seat 720 

Their kings, when Egypt with Assyria strove 

In wealth and luxury. The ascending pile 

Stood fixed her stately highth ; and straight the doors^ 

Opening their brazen folds, discover, wide 

Within, her ample spaces, o'er the smooth 725 

And level pavement. From the arched roof, 

Pendent by subtle magic, many a row 

Of starry lamps and blazing cressets, fed 

With naphtha and asphaltus, yielded light 

As from a sky. The hasty multitude 730 

Admiring entered ; and the work some praise, 

And some the architect. His hand was known 

Paradise Lost ; see also our representation of the Pantheon. Pilasters, 
square columns usually set in a wall with a fourth or fifth of the diame- 
ter projecting. — 714. Doric. The Pantheonhas Corinthian pillars ? Doric 
are more suitable for a council hall? — 715. Architrave, the great beam 
resting on the pillars. — 716. Cornice, the moulded projection above the 
frieze, Avhich last is just above the architrave. See illustrations of archi- 
tecture in the books. Bossy, in relief. — 717. Fretted (A. S. fraetvnan, 
to adorn ; or Ital, fratto, broken, or ferrata, window-grating). — 718. Great 
Alcairo, Memphis. — 720. Serapis, a god typifying the Nile and fertility, 
by some identified with Osiris. See note on 1. 478. — 723. Her stately 
highth being fixed ? Some explain by saying fixed as to her stately 
hi'ight. See 1. 92. — 724. Folds (= Lat. valvce, leaves or folds of a door). 
Discover, etc. Disclose ample spaces within 'I — 725. Within, adverb 
modified by wide J — 121. Pendent row of lamps. —728. Cressets, open 
vessels, jars, or cages, in which tarred ropes, etc., are burnt for beacon lights ; 
hence such lights tliemselves ; any great lights. Fr. croisctte ?— 729. Naph- 
tha, a limpid, bituminous, highly inflammable liquid. Asphaltus, native 
bitumen, compact, brittle, combustible. —730. As from a sky. Tlie Pan- 
theon is lighted from the sky by a round opening 26 feet in diameter in the 
centre of the roof. — 732. Architect. Does Milton identify Manmion Avith 
Mulciber ? Masson and nearly or quite all the critics but Professor Himes 



I 



PARADISE LOST. 55 

In Heaven by many a towered structure high, 

Where sceptred angels held their residence, 

And sat as princes, whom the supreme King 735 

Exalted to such power, and gave to rule, 

Each in his hierarchy, the orders bright. 

Nor was his name unheard or unadored 

In ancient Greece ; and in Ausonian land 

Men called him Mulciber ; and how he fell 740 

From heaven they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 

Sheer o'er the crystal battlements : from mom 

To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 

A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 

Dropt from the zenith like a falling star, 745 

On Lemnos the ^Egaean isle. Thus they relate, 

Erring ; for he with his rebellious rout 

Fell long before ; nor aught availed him now 

To have built in heaven high towers ; nor did he scape 

By all his engines, but was headlong sent 75° 

With his industrious crew to build in hell. 

Meanwhile the winged haralds by command 
Of sovran power, with awful ceremony 
And trumpets' sound, throughout the host proclaim 



say yes. — 736. Gave, permitted. Perhaps ' gave to rule ' is a Latinism. — 
737. Hierarchy (Gr. Up6s, sacred ; apxv, rule), sacred rank ? sacred prin- 
cipality ?— 739. Ausonian, poetic for Italian. — 7 iO. Mulciber (Lat. mul- 
cere, to soften. Because fire softens metals ? or softens human hardships '(), 
Vulcan, god of fire, worker in metals for the gods. See Class. Did. Fell. 
.Having tried to loosen the iron anvils fastened to his mother Juno's feet 
T)y Jupiter, he was seized by the foot and flung from heaven ! Iliad, I. 
591, etc.— 742. Sheer (A. S. sceoran, to separate; scir, clear, clean-cut. 
Wedgewood says, "The fundamental signification seems to be shining, then 
clear, bright, pure, clean"), completely. From morn, etc. Note how 
beautifully the time is lengthened out. —746. Lemnos, etc. The metre, 
with the stress on 2d syl. of JSgcean, represents the concussioni .Egaean, 
in the Archipelago. Lemnos is volcanic? They, the old poets? — 747. 
Hout, rabble, gang ; originally the noise of such mob. — 750. Engines 
(Lat. ingenia, inventiveness), contrivances, instrumentalities. — 752. Har- 
alds. Milton's spelling. Sovran (It. sovrano), sovereign. See note, 1. 246. 



56 PARADISE LOST. 

A solemn council forthwith to be held 755 

At Pandemonium, the high capital 

Of Satan and his peers. Their summons called 

From every band and squared regiment 

By place or choice the worthiest : they anon 

AVith hundreds and with thousands trooping came 760 

Attended. All access was thronged ; the gates 

And porches wide, but chief the spacious hall 

(Though like a covered field, where champions bold 

Wont ride in armed, and at the Soldan's chair 

Defied the best of Panim chivalry 765 

To mortal combat or career with lance) 

Thick swarmed, both on the ground and in the air. 

Brushed with the hiss of rustling wings. As bees 

In spring-time, when the Sun with Taurus rides, 

Pour forth their populous youth about the liive 770 

In clusters ; they among fresh dews and flowers 

Ply to and fro, or on the smoothed plank. 

The suburb of their straw-built citadel, 

New rubbed with balm, expatiate, and confer 

Their state affairs : so thick the aery crowd 775 

Swarmed and were straitened ; till, the signal given, 

— 756. Pandemonium (Gr. irav, pan, all; Saifiuv, claimon, demon), hall 
of all the demons, as Pantheon is hall of all the gods ? Milton either 
coined the word or gave it currency. — 758. Squared regiment (Lat. 
qiiaiuor, four; ex, out; quadra, square; Fr. escadron, squadron of cav- 
alry), squadron, regiment in orderly array. — 763. Covered field. The hall, 
vast as it was, was covered like a tilt-yard. Storr. Milton does not quite 
compare the hall to an '■enclosed field' {champ clos). It is too vast for 
that! Yet it is covered. Let us rise to Milton's coufetion ; not im- 
agine for a moment that he blundered on the meaning of cha^.p clos. —764. 
Wont, were accustomed to. Soldan's (It. Soldano), Sidtan's, — 765. Panim 
(Lat. liarjus, country district ; Fr. ^ms, pays), pag a^ — 766. Mortal, etc. ; 
i. e. either a combat d Voulrancc, to the death ; |3^BLreer (carriere) etc., 
merely ' breaking a lance.' — 767. Swarmed, i. e. ^Bp, porches, hall. — 768. 
As bees, etc. Beautifully expanded from Homer aiffM'^irgil, Jl. II. 87, etc., 
JEri. I. 430, etc.. Georr/. IV. 21. — 769. With Taurtts rides. For a m^ith 
his chariot is passing through that constellation? — 774. Expatiate, walk 
about engaged in conversation. Confer, discuss. — 776. Straitened. Origin 



PARADIiiE LUST, bl 

Behold a wonder ! they but now who seemed 

in bigness to surpass Earth's giant sons, 

Now less than smallest dwarfs, in narrow room 

Throng numberless, like that pygmean race 780 

Beyond the Indian mount ; or faery elves. 

Whose midnight revels, by a forest side 

Or fountain, some belated peasant sees, 

Or dreams he sees, while overhead the Moon 

Sits arbitress, and nearer to the earth 785 

Wheels her pale course : they, on their mirth and dance 

Intent, with jocund music charm his ear ; 

At once with joy and fear his heart rebounds. 

Thus incorporeal spirits to smallest forms 

Reduced their shapes immense, and were at large, 790 

Though without number still, amidst the hall 

Of that infernal court. But far within, 

And in their own dimensions like themselves. 

The great seraphic lords and cherubim 

In close recess and secret conclaA^e sat, 795 

A thousand demi-gods on golden seats, 

Frequent and full. After short silence then. 

And summons read, the great consult began. 

and meaning? -780. Pygmean. Seel. .575.— 781. Indian mount, the Hima- 
layas { Faery elves, * elves of fairy land.' — 783-4. Sees, etc. Aut mdet aut 
vidisse pidat, either sees or thinks he has seen. JSneid, VI. 453.-785. 
Arbitress, witness and ampire. Nearer. The old belief was that incanta- 
tions could draw the moon down from the sky. So stated in Virg. Ed. viii. 
69 ; Horace Eijod. V., etc. — 790. Reduced. Those who accept the Scrip 
tnres (as Mark v., Luke xi. 26, etc.) need no argument to make them admit 
the possibility of this. — 795. Conclave (Lat. con, together; clavis, key), 
alluding, possibly, to the Roman conclave of cardinals sitting in privacy to 
elect a pope ? Recess, retreat. — 796. Frequent and full. Close-packed 
and all occupied? or, numerous seats all filled?— 798. Consult. Usually 
supposed to be accented here on the last syllable. Dryden so uses and accents 
' consults ' as a noun. 



PARADISE LOST. 59 



BOOK 11. 

THE AEGUMENT. 

The consultation begim, Satan debates whether another battle be to be 
hazarded for the recovery of heaven : some advise it, others dissuade. A 
third proposal is preferred, mentioned before by Satan, to search the truth 
of that prophecy or tradition in heaven concerning another world, and 
another kind of creature, equal, or not much inferior, to themselves, about 
this time to be created. Their doubt who shall be sent on this difficult 
search : Satan, their chief, undertakes alone the voyage, is honored 
and applauded. The council thus ended, the rest betake them several 
ways and to several employments, as their inclinations lead them, to 
entertain the time till Satan return. He passes on his journey to hell 
gates; finds them shut, and who sat there to guard them; by whom at 
length they are opened, and discover to him the great gulf between hell 
and heaven. With what difficulty he passes through, directed by Chaos, 
the power of that place, to this sight of this new woiid which he sought. 

High on a throne of royal state, which far 

Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Ind, 

Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand 

Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold, 

Satan exalted sat, by merit raised 5 

To that bad eminence ; and, from despair 

Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires 

Eeyond thus high, insatiate to pursue 

Vain war with heaven ; and, by success untaught, 

His proud imaginations thus displayed : — 10 

1. High, etc. A magnificent opening, somewhat similar to the description 
in Faene Queene, I. iv. 8; also the beginning of Ovid's Met. II. —2. 
Ormus, Hormuz, a little island, once a rich diamond mart, now miserably 
poor, at the entrance of the Persian Gulf. Ind ; i. e. of the Moguls or of the 
Golcondamines? — 3. Gorgeous East is a Shakes, phrase. Love's Lab, 
Lost, IV. 3 ; so is * rich East ' in Macbeth, IV. 3. — 4. Showers, etc. " I '11 
set thee in a shower of gold, and hail rich pearls upon thee," Sliakes. Ant. 
and Cleop. II. 5. A ceremony at coronations in Tartary and Persia. Barbaric 
(Asiatic), an epithet of ' gold ' in Virg. ^n. II. 504. — 5. Satan. Rhetorical 
eflect of reserving the name till this 5th line? Merit. What kind? — 6. 
Despair, as stated in Book I. 126. —9. Success, result, event, experience. 



60 PARADISE LOST. 

" Powers and dominions, deities of heaven ! 
For, since no deep within her gulf can hold 
Immortal vigor, though oppressed and fallen, 
I give not heaven for lost : from this descent 
Celestial virtues rising will appear 15 

More glorious and more dread than from no fall, 
And trust themselves to fear no second fate ! 
Me, though just right, and the fixed laws of heaven, 
Did first create your leader ; next, free choice, 
With what besides in council or in fight 20 

Hath been achieved of merit ; yet this loss. 
Thus far at least recovered, hath much more 
Established in a safe unenvied throne. 
Yielded with full consent. The happier state 
In heaven, which follows dignity, might draw 25 

Envy from each inferior ; but who here 
Will envy whom the highest place exposes 
Foremost to stand against the thunderer's aim 
Your bulwark, and condemns to greatest share 
Of endless pain 1 Where there is, then, no good 30 

For which to strive, no strife can grow up there 
From faction ; for none sure will claim in hell 
Precedence ; none, whose portion is so small 
Of present pain that with ambitious mind 
Will covet more ! With this advantage, then, 35 

To union and firm faith and firm accord, 
More than can be in heaven, we now return 



So iised repeatedly in Shakes. — 11. Powers. See note, Book I. 128, —12. 
For; i. e,, I say 'deities of heaven,' because, etc. Lines 12-17 inclusive are 
parenthetic? — 15. Virtues (Lat. vlr, man; virtus, manhood). Powers? 
powerful beings? Or heroic qualities ? See I. 820. — 18. Me. A classical 
order of words, adopted for emphasis ? Syntax ? Note the grounds of his leader- 
ship ; 'just right,' 'fixed law.s,' ' free choice,' and meritorious achievements. 
Any others? — 24. Happier, etc. The argument is ingenious. Express it 
in your own words. Meaning of * state '? —28. Thunderer. Repeatedly 
(as in Book I. 92, 93, 258) he ascribes the victory to the thunder, as of a 
JujHter Tonans. — 33. Precedence. Observe the accceut. None ; i. e. there 



PARADISE LOST. 61 

To claim our just inheritance of old, 

Surer to prosper than prosperity 

Could have assured us j and by what best way, 40 

Whether of open war or covert guile, 

We now debate. Who can advise, may speak." 

He ceased ; and next him Moloch, sceptred king, 
Stood up, the strongest and the fiercest spirit 
That fought in heaven, now fiercer by despair : 45 

His trust was with the Eternal to be deemed 
Equal in strength, and rather than be less 
Cared not to be at all : with that care lost 
Went all his fear : of God, or hell, or worse, 
He recked not, and these words thereafter spake : — 50 

" My sentence is for open war. Of wiles. 
More unexpert, I boast not : them let those 
Contrive who need, or when they need ; not now. 
Eor, while they sit contriving, shall the rest, 
Millions that stand in arms and longing wait 55 

The signal to ascend, sit lingering here. 
Heaven's fugitives, and for their dwelling-place 
Accept tbis dark opprobrious den of shame, 
The prison of his tyranny who reigns 
By our delay "? No ! let us rather choose, 60 

Armed with hell-flames and fury — all — at once — 

is -none. — 41. Open .... covert. See note, Book I. 662. Spenser (F. Q. 
IT. XI. 7) lias ' T' assail with open force or hidden guile.' What of the rhe- 
torical fitness of Satan's utterances ? — 42. " There is a decided manly tone 
in the argument and sentiments, an eloquent dogmatism, as if each person 
spoke from thorough conviction." Hazlitt. — 43. Next. Beside ? or next 
after ? Moloch. See note, I. 392. Why should he speak next ? Sceptred. 
' Sceptre-bearing,' Gr. (TKriirrovxos, is the Homeric epithet with king. — 46. 
Trust. Stronger than 'hoj)e'i Was. When? — 48. Cared. Subject nom. ? 
50. Recked, cared. So found repeatedly in Shakes. Thereafter, therefore, 
accordingly ? " Moloch's speech is a masterpiece of furious eloquence." Moss. 
Analyze it to ascertain its rhetorical and poetic merit. — 51. Sentence (Lat. 
sen(enfia), opinion, decision, vote. — 52. Unexpert than in ojien war ? or than 
oti/ers ? Irony here ? — 55. Stand. They were not disbanded yet. See II. 522, 
523. — 61. All, instead of dividing forces, or leaving any inactive. At once, 



62 PARADISE LOST. 

O'er heaven's high towers to force resistless way, 

Turning our tortures into horrid arms 

Against the torturer ; when, to meet the noise 

Of his ahuighty engine, he shall hear 65 

Infernal thunder, and, for lightning, see 

Black fire and horror shot with equal rage 

Among his angels, and his throne itself 

Mixed with Tartarean sulphur and strange fire, 

His own invented torments. But perhaps 70 

The way seems difficult, and steep to scale 

With upright wing against a higher foe ! 

Let such bethink them, if the sleepy drench 

Of that forgetful lake benumb not still, 

That in our proper motion we ascend 75 

Up to our native seat : descent and fall 

To us is adverse. Who but felt of late, 

When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear 

now, instead of hxrther delay. Burke suggested that ' all at once' ought to be 
omitted. — 62. Force. He represents brute force, most like the war-god Mars ? 
— 63. Tortures, the flames and fire of 11. 61, 67, 69 — 64, 65. Quite similar to 
Prometheus' threat against Jove. ^sch. Prom. Vinct. 920, 921. Engine. The 
commentators generally seem to have misunderstood this word. It means the 
Messiah's war-chariot, the most tremendous engine that the imagination ever 
conceived ; the chariot which rushed with whirlwind sound (VI. 749), ' with 
the sound of torrent floods or of a numerous host ' {VI. 829, 830) ; the chariot 
tinder whose crushing weight 'the steadfast empyrean shook throughoiit ' (VL 
832, 833), and whose living wheels were studded with eyes, everyone of which 
'glared lightnings and shot forth pernicious fire' (VI. 849). See III. 394, 395, 
396. — 67. Black fire and horror. Hendiadys ? Black, as emitting little or 
no light? I. 62, 63, 181-183. - 69. Tartarean. From Tartarus, the name 
l)y wliich the ancients called the place of punishment in the lower world. 
Strange fire. See this phrase in Lcvit. x. 1. ; also, *we that are of purer 
fire,' Comus, 111.— 72. Upright wing, wing flying towards the zenith ? — 
73. Such as suggest this objection to my plan ? Drench, copious draught ? 
or soaking ? (A. S. rhincnn, to drink, drencan, to give to drink, ply with drink, 
drench; Old Norse, dreckia, to sink in water). — 74. Forgetful, like 
'oblivious,' I. 266.-77. Adverse, unnatural. Because our bodies are 
celestial and buoyant? — 78. Hung-on, etc. So it seemed ; but in fact no 
angel pursiied. 'Sulphurous hail,' 'lightnings,' ' thunders ' (I. 171, 174, 
17.')) pursued them; })erliai)s 'terrors and furies' (VI. 859); and "eternal 



PARADISE LOST. 63 

Insulting, and pursued us through the deep, 

With what compulsion and laborious flight 80 

We sunk thus low 1 The ascent is easy, then. 

The event is feared ! Should we again provoke 

Our stronger, some worse way his wrath may find 

To our destruction ; if there be in hell 

Fear to be worse destroyed ! What can be worse 85 

Than to dwell here, driven out from bliss, condemned 

In this abhorred deep to utter woe ; 

Where pain of unextinguishable fire 

Must exercise us without hope of end, 

The vassals of his anger, when the scourge 90 

Inexorably, and the torturing hour 

Calls us to penance 1 More destroyed than thus, 

We should be quite abolished, and expire. 

What fear we then 1 what doubt we to incense 

His utmost ire 1 which, to the highth enraged, 95 

Will either quite consume us, and reduce 

To nothing this essential — happier far 

Than, miserable, to have eternal being — 

Or, if our substance be indeed divine, 

And cannot cease to be, we are at worst 100 

wrath burnt after them to the bottomless pit." VT. 864,865,866.-82-84. 
Should we . . . destruction. Moloch puts this into the mouth of a 
second objector, and then answers it ? Supply the implied words. — 85. 
Worse destroyed than now? — 87. Utter. Extreme? or outer, i. e. out- 
side of heaven ? I, 72. — 89. Exercise (Lat. exercere, drive, plague), harass. 
-- 90. Vassals. Bentley would read vessels, quoting Rom. ix. 22 ; but 'vas- 
sals' is better. See 252. (Welsh gwas, a youth, a page, a servant.) Milton 
uses the words, ^va,ssa.\s of pe7'dition,' in one of his earliest prose works. — 
91. Torturing hour is Shakespearian. Hamlet, I. 5 ; Mid. N. Dream, V. 1, 
Milton believed the punishment of the devils, like the remorse of bad men, to 
be more intense at some times than at others. We should look beneath the 
surface for these analogies. — 92. More ] i. e. if more. Thus. As we now 
are? — 93. Abolished, annihilated. —94. What doubt we. On account 
of what? why? (Lat. quid dubitamus, what, i. e., w/??/, hesitate we ?) So 
repeatedly in Shakes., as Jul. Cces. II. I. 123, "What need we any spur?" 
— 97. Essential, essence. Adjective for subst., as often in Shakes. ; e. g. 
' caviare to the (jeneral.'' Ham. II, ii. 458. — 98. Miserable, etc. In misery 



64 PARADISE LOST. 

On this side nothing ; and by proof we feel 

Our power sufficient to disturb his heaven, 

And with perpetual inroads to alarm, 

Though inaccessible, his fatal throne : 

Which, if not victory, is yet revenge ! " 105 

He ended frowning, and his look denounced 
Desperate revenge, and battle dangerous 
To less than gods. On the other side up rose 
Belial, in act more graceful and humane. 
A fairer person lost not heaven ; he seemed 110 

For dignity composed and high exploit. 
But all was false and hollow ; though his tongue 
Dropt manna, and could make the worse appear 
The better reason, to perplex and dash 
Maturest counsels ; for his thoughts were low, 115 

To vice industrious, but to nobler deeds 
Timorous and slothful. Yet he pleased the ear, 
And with persuasive accent thus began : — 

" I should be much for open war, peers, 
As not behind in hate, if what was urged, 120 

to have eternal being ? — 100. At worst, in the worst possible condition ? —104. 
Fatal, sustained by fate ? Does Milton seemingly attribute to the devils the 
origin of the idea of fate as a power separate from Deity ? Fate {hat. fatum, 
spoken, fr. fari, to speak) is that which is spoken or decreed by Deity ? Clas- 
sical idea of fate ? 105. Revenge. How much is compressed into this one 

ringing word ! What passions and sentiments are uppermost in him? See the 
description of him in Book I. —106. Denounced (Lat. denwitiare, to annoimce 
threateningly), threatened. —109. Belial, etc. The stormy Moloch is followed 
by Belial, as the wrathful Achilles {Iliad, I. 247, etc.) was followed by the 
' mild-voiced Nestor,' from whose lips ' flowed words sweeter than honey.' 
Act. Behavior? or deeds? or gesture? Humane (Lat. /iwmanws), polished, 
cultured. — 113. Dropt manna. ' Drop manna in the way of starved people.' 
Shakes. Mer. Venice, V. 1. (Heb. mannn, a gift. The taste was 'like wafers 
made with honey.' (Exod. xvi. 31.) Make the worse, etc. This was the 
business of the sophists, according to Plato, who uses the exact original of these 
■vvrords. — 114. Reason. Meaning ? To, so as to ? Dash, confound, strike down. 
-- 117. Pleased, etc. Contrast his speech with Molocli's. See description of 
Belial in Book I. Does he comply with the rhetoricians' rule that the ex- 
ordium should conciliate the audience ?— 120. Hate. The key-note? Which 



PARADISE LOST. 65 

Main reason to persuade immediate war, 
Did not dissuade me most, and seem to cast 
Ominous conjecture on the whole success ; 
When he who most excels in fact of arms, 
In what he counsels and in what excels 125 

Mistrustful, grounds his courage on despair 
And utter dissolution, as the scope 
Of all his aim, after some dire revenge. 
First, what revenge 1 The towers of heaven are filled 
With armed watch, that render all access 130* 

Impregnable : oft on the bordering deep 
Encamp their legions, or, with obscure wing, 
Scout far and wide into the realm of Night, 
' Scorning surprise. Or, could we break our way 

By force, and at our heels all hell should rise 135 

With blackest insurrection to confound 

Heaven's purest light, yet our great enemy. 

All incorruptible, would on his throne 

Sit unpolluted ; and the ethereal mould, 

Incapable of stain, would soon expel 140 

Her mischief, and purge off the baser fire, 

Victorious. Thus repulsed, our final hope 

Is flat despair : we must exasperate 

The almighty victor to spend all his rage; 

of * the seven deadly sins, ' if any, does this speaker typify ? — 123. Conjecture, 
uncertainty, doubt Success, result, issue, as in 1. 9 ? — 124. In fact of arms, 
Fr. en fait d'armes. See 1. 537. — 127. Scope, etc. This is an ingenious 
misstatement of the position of Moloch, whose great aim was not annihilation, 
but revenge. ' Scope,' fr. Gr. aKeirrofj.ai, skeptomai, to look; (tkotSs, skopos, 
mark, target.— ISO. All access, every way of approach. Accent 2d syl. of 
' access' as in I. 761. — 131. Deep. Chaos ? On the deep. Chaos is an ocean, 
892. — 132. Obscure, accented repeatedly on first syl. in Shakes. — 133. Scout 
(Lat. auris, ear ; auscultare, to give ear to, listen ; Fr. ecouter, to listen), go out 
swiftly to reconnoitre. — 135. By force. Observe how Belial grapples step by 
step with Moloch's arguments. To what is this passage, 134-137, responsive ? 
— 138. All, wholly. Incorruptible. Kom. i. 23. — 139. Mould, substance, 
fiery essence (of the throne? or of the bodies of angels ?). —141. Her. 
As in Book I. 592, to avoid its.—U2. Hope is, etc.; i. e. according to 



66 PARADISE LOST, 

And that must end us ; that must be our cure, 145 

To be no more. Sad cure ! for who would lose, 

Though full of pain, this intellectual being. 

Those thoughts that wander through eternity, 

To perish rather, swallowed up and lost 

In the wide womb of uncreated Night, 150 

Devoid of sense and motion 1 And who knows, 

Let this be good, whether our angry Foe 

Can give it, or will ever ? How he can, 

Is doubtful : that he never will, is sure. 

Will he, so wise, let loose at once his ire, 155 

Belike through impotence, or unaware. 

To give his enemies their wish, and end 

Them in his anger whom his anger saves 

To punish endless % ' Wherefore cease we, then ] ' 

Say they who counsel war ; ' we are decreed, 160 

Eeserved, and destined to eternal woe ; 

Whatever doing, what can we suffer more ? 

What can we suffer worse ? ' Is this, then, worst, 

Thus sitting, thus consulting, thus in arms ? 

What when we fled amain, pursued and strook 165 

With heaven's afflicting thunder, and besought 

The deep to shelter us % This hell then seemed 

A refuge from those wounds. Or when we lay 

Chained on the burning lake ? That sure was worse. 

Moloch, 1, 94-97. — 146. Who would lose. The reader will not fail to note the 
touching pathos of the next four lines. — 1 17. Thoughts that wander. Like 
TToWhs 65ovs i\d6vra (ppovTiSos irXdvois, travelling many paths in wander- 
ings of thought (Sophocles OecHj). Rex, 67). See Claudio's, "Aye, but to die 
and go we know not where," etc. Sliakes. Meas. for Meas. III. 1 ; also 
Gray's Elegy, st. 22, "For who, to dunih forgetfulness a prey," etc. —156. 
Belike, for, it may he like ; i. e. perhaps, forsooth. Irony ? Impotence, in- 
ability to control himself. Unaware of the consequences. — 159. Endless. 
Modi^es punish ? or ivJiom ? Wherefore, etc. What does this part of Belial's 
speech answer in Moloch's? — 164. Note the climax. — 165. What (say you 
of our condition) when, etc. Or is * what ' a mere interjection ? Amain (A. S. 
magn, force), with all our might (or, jiossibly with all speed). Strook, old 
form of struck. —IQG. Afflicting. Sec note, T. 186. —170. Breath, etc. 



PARADISE LOST. ' 67 

What if the breath that kindled those grim fires, 170 

Awaked, should blow them into sevenfold rage, 

And plunge us in the flames 1 or, from above, 

Should intermitted vengeance arm again 

His red right hand to plague us 1 What if all 

Her stores were opened, and this firmament 175 

Of hell should spout her cataracts of fire, 

Impendent horrors, threatening hideous fall 

One day upon our heads ; while we perhaps, 

Designing or exhorting glorious war. 

Caught in a fiery tempest, shall be hurled, 180 

Each on his rock transfixed, the sport and prey 

Of racking whirlwinds, or forever sunk 

Under yon boiling ocean, WTapped in chains, 

There to converse with everlasting groans, 

TJnrespited, unpitied, unreprieved, 185 

Ages of hopeless end 1 This would be worse. 

War, therefore, open or concealed, alike 

My voice dissuades ; for what can force or guile 

In Isaiah xxx. 33, "The breath of the Lord kindles" the fire of Tophet. — 
174, His. Whose? Red right hand. Like Horace's rubente dextera. 
Odes, I. n. Why 'ret?'? — 175. Her; i. e. of hell? — 176. The commen- 
tators have not mentioned the traces in this passage of Learns tremendous 
ravings, ''You cataracts and hurricanes, spout," etc. King Lear, Act III. 
sc. II. 180, 181, 182. Very similar is the death of Ajax Oileus, ' caught up 
in tempest,' 'impaled on a sharp rock,' etc. JEn. I. 44, 45. — 182. Rack- 
ing (Dutch rncJce, a frame to torture by stretching ; akin to Lat. stringere ? 
Eng. stretch f) tormenting; as 'blown with restless violence,' etc. Shakes. 
Meas. forMeas. III. 1 ; so Virg. jEn.Nl. 740,741, "Some souls, suspended, 
are spread out to the empty winds." — 184. Converse (Lat. conversaiH, abide), 
live, dwell, commune ? — 185. Note the fine effect of repeating the prefix un. 
So, — 

'Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified.' V. 899. 

* Unkind, unmanly, and unprincely Ammon.' Peele. 
' Unbodied, unheard, unsouled, unseen.' Spenser. 

' Unseen, unmarked, unpitied, unrewarded.' Fairfaxes Tasso. 
'Unwept, unhonored, and imsung.' Scott. 

* Unknelled, uncofiined, and imknown.' Byron. 

TJnrespited differs how from unreprieved ? — 186. Of hopeless end. Ages 



68 PARADISE LOST. 

With him, or who deceive his mind, whose eye 

Views all things at one view 1 He from heaven's highth 190 

All these our motions vain sees and derides, 

Not more almighty to resist our might, 

Than wise to frustrate all our plots and wiles. 

Shall we, then, live thus vile, the race of heaven 

Thus trampled, thus expelled, to suffer here 195 

Chains and these torments 1 Better these than worse, 

By my advice ; since fate inevitable 

Subdues us, and omnipotent decree, 

The victor's will. To suffer, as to do, 

Our strength is equal ; nor the law unjust 200 

That so ordains. This was at first resolved. 

If we were wise, against so great a foe 

Contending, and so doubtful what might fall. 

I laugh, when those who at the spear are bold 

And venturous, if that fail them, shrink, and fear 205 

What yet they know must follow, to endure 

Exile, or ignominy, or bonds, or pain, 

The sentence of their conqueror. This is now 

Our doom ; which if we can sustain and bear, 

Our supreme foe in time may much remit 210 

His anger, and perhaps, thus far removed, 

Not mind us not offending, satisfied 

With what is punished ; whence these raging fires 

Will slacken, if his breath stir not their flames. 

Our purer essence then will overcome 215 

whose end is not to be hoped for?— 188. Can . . . with, can avail against. 
— 191. Derides. " He that sitteth in the heavens sliall laugh ; the Lord 
sliall have them in derision." Ps. ii. 4.— 199. To suffer, etc. See note T. 
158. Scajvola boasted that he, like a true Roman, knew liow et fncere el pati, 
both to do and to suffer. Zm IT. 12. —201. This. Fortitude? Resolved. 
Paraphrase this sentence. — 203. Doubtful. Who or what was doubtful ? 
Fall, happen. — 207. Ignominy. Make four syllables, or three ? Scan.— 
209. Sustain . . . bear. Difference? Which is physical ? — 210. Supreme. 
Accent ? I. 735. — 211. Thus far. How far ? See note I. 73. Removed be- 
longs to he 1 or as ? - 213. What is punished = what punishment is inflicted ? 



PARADISE LOST. 69 

Their noxious vapor ; or, inured, not feel ; 

Or, changed at length, and to the place conformed 

In temper and in nature, will receive 

Familiar the fierce heat ; and, void of pain, 

This horror will grow mild, this darkness light ; 220 

Besides what hope the never-ending flight 

Of future days may bring, what chance, what change 

Worth waiting ; since our present lot appears 

For happy though but ill, for ill not worst. 

If we procure not to ourselves more woe." 225 

Thus Belial, with words clothed in reason's garb, 
Counselled ignoble ease and peaceful sloth, 
Is'ot peace ; and after him thus Mammon spake : — 

" Either to disenthrone the king of heaven 
We war, if war be best, or to regain 230 

Our own right lost. Him to unthrone we then 
May hope, when everlasting Fate shall yield 
To fickle Chance, and Chaos judge the strife. 
The former, vain to hope, argues as vain 

The latter ; for what place can be for us 235 

Within heaven's bound, unless heaven's lord supreme 
We overpower ] Suppose Be should relent, 
And publish grace to all, on promise made 
Of new subjection ; with what eyes could we 
Stand in his presence humble, and receive 240 

Strict laws imposed, to celebrate his throne 

— 216. Vapor (Lat. vapor, hot exhalation, heat ; Lithuanian kwapas, breath, 
exhalation ; Gv. KairvSs, kapnos, smoke), heat. — 220. Light. Substantive or 
adj. ? Masson and Keightley prefer the former. — 221-2. Besides . . . bring. 
Note the rhyme ; also the slow monotony of the rhythm-. Appropriateness ? — 
223. Waiting for.. — 224. For happy = as regards happiness. For ill = as 
regards illness or badness. So Theognis (of Megara, 583-495 b, c), 510, 
us ed fiev, xaAfTrws • ws xo^^tcDs 5e, /taA' e5, as for well, badly ; but as for 
bad]y,quite well ! — 227- Ignoble ease ^Virgil's ignohilis oti, Geor. IV. 564. 
What fundamental fallacy underlies Belial's plan ? Is it consistent with 
his character? See 108-119; I. 490-502. What seems to be his ruling 
passion or leading vice ? — 233. Strife between Chaos and Fate ? or between 
God and us? See 907, 910, 960, 965.-234. Former. 'Disenthrone'? or 



70 PARADISE LOST. 

With warbled hymns, and to his godhead sing 

Forced hallehijahs, while he lordly sits 

Our envied sovran, and his altar breathes 

Ambrosial odors and ambrosial flowers, 245 

Our servile ofi'erings 1 This must be our task 

In heaven, this our delight. How wearisome 

Eternity so spent in worship paid 

To whom we hate ! Let us not, then, pursue 

Ly force impossible, by leave obtained 250 

Unacceptable, though in heaven, our state 

Of splendid vassalage ; but rather seek 

Our own good from ourselves, and from our own 

Live to ourselves, though in this vast recess, 

Free, and to none accountable, preferring 255 

Hard liberty before the easy yoke 

Of servile pomp. Our greatness will appear 

Then most conspicuous when great things of small, 

Useful of hurtful, prosperous of adverse. 

We can create, and in what place soe'er 260 

Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain 

Through labor and endurance. This deep world 

Of darkness do we dread ? How oft amidst 

Thick clouds and dark doth heaven's all-ruling sire 

Choose to reside, his glory unobscured, 265 

And with the majesty of darkness round 

Covers his throne, from whence deep thunders roar 

Mustering their rage, and heaven resembles hell ! 

'Fate shall yield'? Latter. 'Regain'? or 'Chaos judge* ? Argues, 
proves. — 241. Celebrate. It is not necessary to take this word in its orig. 
Lat. sense of frequent, throng arovnd ; but may it not be the meaning? — 
243. Literal meaning of the Hebrew word Mllelujah ? 244. Breathes. Ex- 
hales the breath of ? — 249. Pursue. Seek (to regain) ? — 250. Impossible. 
What is impossible? what unacceptable? — 252. Vassalage. See 1. 90.— 
253. From our own resources. Lat. e nostra. — 254. Live to ourselves. 
So lit mihi vivam, that I may live to myself. Hor, Ep. I. 18, 1. 107. 
— 255. As Prometheus would not exchange his hard lot for the servitude of 
Hermes. J'roDi. Vinct. 974. — 263. How oft, etc. See the sublime passages 
to this effect in Ps. xviii, ll-lS ; xcvii. 2 ; 1 Kings viii. 12 ; Rev. iv. 5. — 268. 



PARADISE LOST. 71 

As he our darkness, cannot we his light 

Imitate when we please 1 This desert soil 270 

Wants not her hidden lustre, gems and gold ; 

Nor want we skill or art, from whence to raise 

Magnificence ; and what can heaven show more ? 

Our torments also may in length of time 

Become our elements, these piercing fires 275 

As soft as now severe, our temper changed 

Into their temper ; which must needs remove 

The sensible of pain. All things invite 

To peaceful counsels and the settled state 

Of order, how in safety best we may 280 

Compose our present evils, with regard 

Of what we are and where, dismissing quite 

All thoughts of war. Ye have what I advise." 

He scarce had finished, when such murmur filled 
The assembly as when hollow rocks retain 285 

The sound of blustering winds, which all night long 
Had roused the sea, now with hoarse cadence lull 
Seafaring men o'erwatched, whose bark by chance, 
Or pinnace, anchors in a craggy bay 

After the tempest. Such applause "v^jas heard 290 

As Mammon ended ; and his sentence pleased, 
Advising peace : for such another field 
They dreaded worse than hell : so much the fear 
Of thunder and the sword of Michael 

Mustering (Lat. monstrdre, to point out ; Fr. montrer, to show ; It. mos- 
trando, mustering), collecting for display. — 275. " Milton may have dictated 
* element.'" No : heat and cold were both among the 'elements' of their tor- 
ments. II. 600. — 278. Sensible of, sense of ? or sensibility to ? or sensible 
property of? See 1. 97. —280. How, i. e. as to how (or, to (Consider how). — 
281. Compose, arrange, make the best of. Mammon wanders from the question 
put by Satan? — 284. Such murmur. The critics cite II. II. 144; Jin. 
X. 98 ; Claud, in Rufin. I. 70. — 287. Cadence, sounds dying away. — 
288. O'erwatched, weary with being too long awake. — 289. Pinnace. 
Kind of vessel ? — 291. Sentence = ? See 51 and note. What is Mam- 
mon's niling passion ? What three kinds of statesmanship are represented 
by Moloch, Belial, and Mammon ? Illustrate. — 294. Sword. VI. 250. 



72 PARADISE LOST. 

"Wrought still within them ; and no less desire 295 

To found this nether empire, which might rise 

By policy, and long process of time, 

In emulation opposite to heaven. 

Which when Beelzebub perceived, than whom, 

Satan except, none higher sat, with grave 300 

Aspect he rose, and in his rising seemed 

A piUar of state. Deep on his front engraven 

Deliberation sat, and public care ; 

And princely counsel in his face yet shone, 

Majestic though in ruin. Sage he stood, 305 

With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear 

The weight of mightiest monarchies ; his look 

Drew audience and attention still as night 

Or summer's noontide air, while thus he spake : — 

"Thrones and imperial powers, offspring of heaven, 310 
Ethereal virtues ! or these titles now 
Must we renounce, and, changing style, be called 
Princes of hell 1 for so the popular vote 
Inclines, here to continue, and build up here 
A growing empire ; doubtless ! while we dream, 315 

And know not that the king of heaven hath doomed 

Michael, trisyl. ? He personates justice ? — 296. Nether. Etymology ? — 
297. Process. Note the accent of words ending in cess, in Milton ; as access, 
recess, process, success. — 299. Beelzebub. The Ulysses of the infernal peers, 
deep in the confidence and counsels of Satan ? In what respect is his plan a 
compromise ? Than whom. ' Than ' is here a preposition. Thus, * No 
mightier than thyself or me.' Shakes. Jul. Ccesar. So in Proverbs xxvii. 4, 
" A fool's wrath is heavier than them both." — 301. Aspect. Ace. last syl. 
So always in Shakes. —302, Pillar of state. Shakespearian, 2 Henry V., 
I. 1 ; and Scriptural, Gal. ii. 9 ; Rev. iii, 12. — 305. Majestic. Face ? or 
counsel? — 306. Atlantean. Like those of Atlas who bore up the heavens. 
Odys. I. 52 ; J^n. TV. 482. See Class. Diet. —SOS-8. We search literature 
in vain for so grand a picture of an orator. What are its main features ? 
Noontide (A. S. nontld. Tide is time ; Ger. zeit). Is the noontide air noted 
for stillness? — 310. Heaven is emphatic by antithesis to hell, 313? Ob- 
serve how promptly and vigorously he grapples with Mammon's argument ! 
Most resembles Demosthenes ? Chatham? Cicero? Burke ? Webster ? Mira- 
beau ? — 315. Doubtless. Ironical ? — 318. Retreat in which to live (we 



PARADISE LOST, 73 

This place our dungeon, not our safe retreat 

Beyond his potent arm, to live exempt 

From heaven's high jurisdiction, in new league 

Banded against his throne, but to remain 320 

In strictest bondage, though thus far removed, 

Under the inevitable curb, reserved 

His captive multitude. For he, be sure, 

In height or depth, still first and last will reign 

Sole king, and of his kingdom lose no part 325 

By our revolt ; but over hell extend 

His empire, and with iron sceptre rule 

Us here, as with his golden those in heaven. 

What sit we then projecting peace and war I 

"War hath determined us, and foiled with loss 330 

Irreparable ; terms of peace yet none 

Vouchsafed or sought ; for what peace will be given 

To us enslaved, but custody severe. 

And stripes, and arbitrary punishment 

Inflicted 1 and what peace can we return, 335 

But, to our power, hostility and hate, 

Untamed reluctance, and revenge, though slow, 

Yet ever plotting how the conqueror least 

May reap his conquest, and may least rejoice 

In doing what we most in suffering feel ] 340 

Nor will occasion want, nor shall we need 

With dangerous expedition to invade 

may live). E. C. Browne says of this passage, '' Milton appears to have been 
thinking of Alsatia and its sanctuary privileges." Probable ? — 321. Thus 
far answers 1. 211. See I. 74.-324. Be sure. Like Gr. (rd<f>' Xffdi, know 
well. Eur. Hipp. 1327 ; more like Ps. c 3, " Be ye sure that the Lord, he is 
God." — 324. Highth or depth == heaven or hell '{ First and last = for- 
ever ? — 327. Iron. " Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron." Ps. ii. 9. 
— 329. What = why, as in 1. 94. — 330. Determined us = limited us ? set- 
tled our case ? fixed our determination ? or ended our hopes ? Wliich ? Ground 
of your opinion? — 333-36. Custody . . . hostility, etc. The lines seem 
half sarcastic, like, " This, forsooth, is the sort of peace ! " To our power = 
to the extent of our power. — 337. Reluctance (Lat. reluctari, struggle 
against), resistance, active opposition. — 341. Want, be wanting. " Nor 



74 PARADISE LOST, 

Heaven, whose high walls fear no assault or siege, 

Or ambush from the deep. What if we find 

Some easier enterprise 1 There is a place, 345 

If ancient and prophetic fame in heaven 

Err not, another world, the happy seat 

Of some new race called Man, about this time 

To be created like to us, though less 

In power and excellence, but favored more 350 

Of him who rules above : so was his will 

Pronounced among the gods, and by an oath, 

That shook heaven's whole circumference, confirmed. 

Thither let us bend all our thoughts, to learn 

What creatures there inhabit, of what mould 355 

Or substance, how endued, and what their power, 

And where their weakness, how attempted best, 

By force or subtlety. Though heaven be shut, 

And heaven's high arbitrator sit secure 

In his own strength, this place may lie exposed, 360 

The utmost border of his kingdom, left 

To their defence who hold it : here perhaps 

Some advantageous act may be achieved 

By sudden onset, either with hell fire 

To waste his whole creation, or possess 365 

All as our own, and drive, as we were driven, 

The puny habitants ; or, if not drive. 

Seduce them to our party, that their God 

did there want cornice," etc., I. 715, 716. — 345. A place See I. 650-55. 
Again attention is concentrated upon our earth as a post to be captured, and 
made possibly a base of operations against heaven. —349. Less. "Thou 
hast made him a little lower than the angels." Ps. viii. 5. —351-53. " God 
. . . confirmed it by an oath." Heb. vi. 17. Zeus (R I. 530 ; JUn. IX. 106), 
by his nod makes vast Olympus tremble. — 355. Mould. Shape, pattern ? 
or matter, as almost always in Milton ? I. 706 ; IT. 139. — 357. Attempted 
(Lat. attentare, strive after, attack), tried, assailed. Whether by force, etc. 
— 359. Arbitrator (late Latin), ruler, — 365. Creation, our own universe 
(earth, sun, moon, and stars), then just created from Chaos. It is called 'this 
pendent world,' 1. 1052.— 367. Puny {Fr. puisne, later-born). Little? or later- 



PARADISE LOST. 75 

May prove their foe, and with repenting hand 

AboUsh his own works. This would surpass 370 

Common revenge, and interrupt his joy 

In our confusion, and our joy upraise 

In his disturbance ; when his darling sons, 

Hurled headlong to partake with us, shall curse 

Their frail original and faded bliss, 375 

Faded so soon. Advise if this be worth 

Attempting, or to sit in darkness here 

Hatching vain empires ! " Thus Beelzebub 

Pleaded his devilish counsel, first devised 

By Satan, and in part proposed ; for whence, 380 

But from the author of all ill could spring 

So deep a malice, to confound the race 

Of mankind in one root, and earth with hell 

To mingle and involve ; done all to spite 

The great Creator 1 But their spite still serves 385 

His glory to augment. The bold design 

Pleased highly those infernal States, and joy 

Sparkled in all their eyes. With full assent 

They vote : whereat his speech he thus renews : — 

" "Well have ye judged, well ended long debate, 390 
Synod of gods ! and, like to what ye are. 
Great things resolved ; which from the lowest deep 

born ? — 369, 370. " It repented the Lord that he had made man." Gen. vi. 6. 
— 375. Original. Originator, author? or origin? or original state? — 
376, 377. Advise (Fr. aviser), consider? or offer counsel? Or to sif. 
What word to be siipplied after or ? — %11, 378. Sit . . . hatching. The 
critics seem to miss the force of this startling metaphor ! Vain (Lat. vanis, 
void), empty. Incapable of being hatched ? — 379. First devised. Seel. 
650-55. As to the intimacy between Satan and Beelzebub, see I. 87, etc ; V. 
673, etc. — 383. Root (like Lat. stirpe, stem, stock, root). — 387. States, 
chiefs. So the phrases, 'estates of the realm,' * estates of parliament,' ' third 
estate,' 'states-general,' les etats g^neraux. Joy sparkled, etc. "Disdain 
and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes." Shakes. — 389. "We must suppose 
here some brief act of voting." Masson. — 391. Synod. Like ' conclave ' 
(I. 795); and 'consistory' {Par. Regained, T. 42). Is this ecclesiastical 
word a little sarcastic here? Gr. <ryyo5os, synodos, meeting. Like. To 



76 PARADISE LOST. 

"Will once more lift us up, in spite of fate, 

Nearer our ancient seat ; perhaps in view 

Of those bright confines, whence with neighboring arms 

And opportune excursion, we may chance 396 

Ke-enter heaven ; or else in some mild zone 

Dwell, not un visited of heaven's fair light. 

Secure, and at the brightening orient beam 

Purge off this gloom : the soft delicious air, 400 

To heal the scar of these corrosive fires. 

Shall breathe her balm. But first, whom shall we send 

In search of this new world ? Whom shall we find 

Sufficient 1 Who shall tempt with wandering feet 

The dark unbottomed infinite abyss, 405 

And through the palpable obscure find out 

His uncouth way, or spread his aery flight, 

Upborne with indefatigable wings 

Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive 

The happy isle? What strength, what art, can then 410 

Suffice, or what evasion bear him safe 

Through the strict senteries and stations thick 

what does this word belong ? — 395. Neighboring. To what ? — 396. Chance 
= perchance ? or chance to 1 — 399. Brightening. Groroing bright ? or mak- 
ing bright ? Orient. Rising ? or bright ? or eastern ? See note on I. 546. 
— 401. Scar. Fr. escarre, or escharre, crust of a burn, dead flesh to be sloughed 
off ; fr. Gr. icrxo-po- '■ — 402. Shall. This word was still largely interchangeable 
with 7oill. — 405. Abyss. Of Chaos ? or of Lethe ? If Chaos, the question is, 
" Who shall attempt to go on foot through it, or on wings over it ? " See 
11. 828, 829. — 406. Palpable obscure. The darkness that might be felt, of 
Exod. X. 21. 'Obscure 'is a noun here, like 'essential,' 1. 97; 'sensible,' 
1.278; 'abrupt,' 1. 409. — 407. Uncouth (A. S. cunnan,- to know; cuthe, 
knew, ge-cuth, known ), unknown. — 409. Arrive (Lat. ad, to, ripa, river-bank ; 
strictly 'arrive' means to reach the shore), arrive at. So 'at' is omitted 
after 'arrive' in Shakes. Jul. Ccns. I. II. 110 ; 3 Hen. VT. V. 3, 8. —410. Isle. 
N.ewton, Keightley, Browne, Ross, Ston-, Major, Brydges, and others, make 
it 'the earth hanging in the sea of air.' But Masson says, "This inter- 
pretation must be wrong. The angels know nothing as yet of the earth, or 
the nature of its environment. . . . The 'Isle' is "this world, which . . . 
they can fancy as an azure sphere or round, insulated between heaven and 
Chaos." But the * flight ' was 'aery,' 1. 407, and air seems to be expected as 
a matter of course, 1. 400. —412. Senteries (Lat. sentirc, to perceive ; or, 



PARADISE LOST, 77 

Of angels watching round 1 Here he had need 

All circumspection, and we now no less 

Choice in our suffrage ; for, on whom we send, 415 

The weight of all, and our last hope, relies." 

This said, he sat ; and expectation held 
His look suspense, awaiting who appeared 
To second, or oppose, or undertake 

The perilous attempt : but all sat mute, 420 

Pondering the danger with deep thoughts j and each 
In other's countenance read his own dismay, 
Astonished : none among the choice and prime 
Of those heaven-warring champions could be found 
So hardy as to proffer or accept, 425 

Alone, the dreadful voyage ; till at last 
Satan, whom now transcendent glory raised 
Above his fellows, with monarchal pride 
Conscious of highest worth, unmoved thus spake : — 

" progeny of heaven ! empyreal thrones ! 430 

With reason hath deep silence and demur 
Seized us, though undismayed. Long is the way 
And hard, that out of hell leads up to light. 

better, fr. Fr. seedier, path, as " the sentinel walks in a little path "), senti- 
nels. Stations, stationed guards. — 413. Had need all. Would have need 
of all ? or woidd have in need all ? — 41-i. We. Marked by Milton to be 
spelled wee for emphasis by contrast with he. — 416. All. All what ? 
Kelies. Subject nominative ? — 418. Look in suspense. 'His look ranging 
or suspended over the assembly as if imcertaiu from what quarter there might 
be a response.' Masson. Why did not Moloch volunteer ? — 420. Mute. As 
the Senate, after the defeat and death of the Scipios, sat mute before the 
choice of a commander for the army in Spain, no one daring to accept the 
position. Liv. XXVT. 18. — 429. Unmoved. Without rising from his seat ? 
or undisturbed by the danger ? or unsolicited, i. e. of his ovra motion ? — 430. 
Of heaven. All of Satan's speeches to the assembled angels show the art or 
artifice of an orator, first conciliating his audience. How with Moloch's ? 
Mammon's? Belial's? Beelzebub's? Any reason for the difference? — 431. 
Demur (Lat. demordri, to loiter, to retard ; Fr. demeurer, to stay ; deineurer 
tmtet, to be struck 'dumb), hesitation. — 432. Long, etc. So says Dante, 
"The way is long, and difficnlt the road." Infer. XXXIV. 95, Similarly 
the famous lines in Virgil, JEn. VI. 128, 129, " The descent to hell is easy 



PARADISE LOST. 

Our prison strong, this huge convex of fire, 

Outrageous to devour, immures us round 435 

Ninefold ; and gates of burning adamant, 

Barred over us, prohibit all egress. 

These passed, if any pass, the void profound 

Of unessential night receives him next. 

Wide gaping, and with utter loss of being 440 

Threatens him, plunged in that abortive gulf. 

If thence he scape into whatever world 

Or unknown region, what remains him less 

Than unknown dangers, and as hard escape 1 

But I should ill become this throne, peers, 445 

And this imperial sovranty, adorned 

With splendor, armed with power, if aught proposed 

And judged of public moment, in the shape 

Of difficulty or danger, could deter 

Me from attempting. Wherefore do I assume 450 

These royalties, and not refuse to reign. 

Refusing to accept as great a share 

Of hazard as of honor, due alike 

To him Avho reigns, and so much to him due 

Of hazard more as he above the rest 455 

High honored sits 1 Go, therefore, mighty powers. 



. . . but to retrace one's steps, to come up and out to the upper air, this is 
the task, this the toil." — 434, Convex. Contemplated from the outside ? Or 
was * convex ' used by the old poets for ' concave,' like Lat. convexus 1 See 
1. 635. — 436. Ninefold, etc. How had Satan learned these particulars ? 
Had they consciousness, power of observation, when they entered hell ? 
or is it mere assumption of knowledge on the part of Satan ? See 11. 165 
to 169 ; also 11. 645, 646. Adamant. What is it? etymology. — 438. Void 
profound, Lucretins's inane profundrtm, Shakespeare's 'empty vast an<l 
wandering air,' or ' kingdom of perp'etual night,' in Richard III., I. iv. — 439. 
Unessential, without real substance. A dark infinite vacuum ?— 441. Abor- 
tive. Non-producing ? or never bringing to completion ? or rendering incom- 
plete, destroying life ? Remains, awaits, Lat. inanet. — 445-55. This hand- 
some recognition of the obligation imposed by sovereignty is slightly like 
Prince Sarpedon's, II. XII. 310, etc. So Par. Reg. II. 463, etc. — 452. Re- 
fusing = if refusing ? — 453. Alike. Hazard and honor alike ? or due to 



PARADISE LOST. 79 

Terror of heaven, though fallen ! intend at home, 

While here shall be our home, what best may ease 

The present misery, and render hell 

More tolerable ; if there be cure or charm 460 

To respite, or deceive, or slack the pain 

Of this ill mansion : intermit no watch 

Against a wakeful foe, while I abroad 

Through all the coasts of dark destruction seek 

Deliverance for us all : this enterprise 465 

None shall partake with me." Thus saying, rose 

The monarch, and prevented all reply ; 

Prudent lest, from his resolution raised, 

Others among the chief might offer now, 

Certain to be refused, what erst they feared, 470 

And, so refused, might in opinion stand 

His rivals, winning cheap the high repute 

Which he through hazard huge must earn. But they 

Dreaded not more the adventure than his voice 

Forbidding ; and at once with him they rose. 475 

Their rising all at once was as the sound 

Of thunder heard remote. Towards him they bend 

With awful reverence prone, and as a god 

Extol him equal to the Highest in heaven. 

Nor failed they to express how much they praised 480 

That for the general safety he despised 

His own : for neither do the spirits damned 

Mm and the rest alike ?- 457. Intend, attend to. So Shakes. Tim. of Ath. 
II IT • also Bacon's ffenrij VII. " The king intended his pleasures." Lat. 
intendere {animum), to stretch (the mind) to. -462. Mansion (Lat. manere, 
to remain), abiding-place. - 464. Coasts, etc., where? -467. Prevented 
(pre, before, venire, to come), forestalled. The peremptoriness of this conclu- 
sion is re^al? But what has become of their republican equality '^ — 468. 
From. By? Raised in courage ? — 470. What. What? Certain. Dif- 
ference between this and ' sure ' ? — 471. Opinion, pitblic opinion, or reputa- 
tion. So repeatedly in Shakes. (Mer. of Ven. 1. 1., 'this fool-gudgeon, this 
opinion ?— 478. Prone, bowing down. As a god, etc. Slave to the ' last in- 
firmity of noble mind.' — 482. Neither. 'Not any more than bad men.' 
Keightley. Storr cites very appositely, James ii. 19, "The devils also believe 



80 PARADISE LOST. 

Lose all their virtue ; lest bad men should boast 

Their specious deeds on earth, which glory excites, 

Or close ambition varnished o'er with zeal. 485 

Thus they their doubtful consultations dark 
Ended, rejoicing in their matchless chief : 
As, when from mountain tops the dusky clouds 
Ascending, while the north wind sleeps, o'erspread 
Heaven's cheerful face, the louring element 490 

Scowls o'er the darkened landskip snow or shower ; 
If chance the radiant sun, with farewell sweet, 
Extend his evening beam, the fields revive. 
The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds 
Attest their joy, that hill and valley rings. 495 

shame to men ! Devil with devil damned 
Eirm concord holds ; men only disagree 
Of creatures rational, though under hope 
Of heavenly grace, and, God proclaiming peace, 
Yet live in hatred, enmity, and strife 500 

Among themselves, and levy cruel wars, 
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy : 

and tremble." — 483. Virtue. Satan's public spirit ? or their generous recog- 
nition of his seeming merit? Lest. Meaning, '/ say this, lest'? — 485. 
Close, concealed. — 486. Consultations. Note the position of the noun be- 
tween two adjectives, an arrangement. of which Milton is fond. See I. 1. 69 ; 
and ' sad occasion dear.' Lycidas, 6. — 488. As when, etc. " This simile 
brightens and refreshes for a moment the sombre atmosphere of hell." Ross. 
It is preceded by the mention of distant thunder, and followed by a gor- 
geous display of royalty. Name all its parts. — 489. North wind sleeps, etc. 
" While the might of Boreas sleeps." II. V. 524. The north wind would 
drive the clouds away. They quote here II. XVI. 297 ; also Spenser's 40th 
Sonnet. — 490. Heaven's cheerful face. This phrase is in Spenser, Faerie 
Queene, II. xn. 34. Louring. * Lour ' is akin to 'leer,' to look in a covert 
or suspicious way ; Loav Ger. Mren, to look sullen. Element. Here, as 
often in Shakes, and the old writers, 'element' is air or sky. — 491. Snow, 
apposition to ' element ' ? or object of * scowls ' ? — 492. Chance, as in 
1. 396. — 495. Rings. Why not ring ? — 496. 0, shame. " He evidently 
had his own times in view." Keightle/i/. —i97. Concord, etc. Todd quotes 
Bishop Hall (1615), "Even evil spirits keep touch within themselves." 
— 501. Levy (Fr. lever, lift, raise). "This sense seems improper." Jo/in- 



PARADISE LOST. 81 

As if (which might induce us to accord) 

Man had not hellish foes enow besides, 

That day and night for his destruction wait. 505 

The Stygian council thus dissolved, and forth 
In order came the grand infernal peers : 
Midst came their mighty paramount, and seemed 
Alone the antagonist of heaven, nor less 
Than hell's dread emperor, with pomp supreme, 510 

And god-like imitated state : him round 
A globe of fiery seraphim enclosed 
With bright emblazonry, and horrent arms. 
Then of their session ended they bid cry 
With trumpets' regal sound the great residt : 515 

Toward the four winds four speedy cherubim 
Put to their mouths the sounding alchemy. 
By harald's voice explained ; the hollow abyss 
Heard far and wide, and all the host of hell 
With deafening shout returned them loud acclaim. 520 
Thence more at ease their minds, and somewhat raised 
By false presumptuous hope, the ranged powers 

Subsequent usage has fully justified Miltou.— 504. Enow (A. S. 

; Ger. genug, enough ; Nofweg. nogr, abundant), old form of enough. 
^his pronunciation is still heard in some parts of England.— 508. Para- 
mount (Lat.^er, through ; acl,io ; montem, mountain ; Yt. paramont, at the 
top), lord-paramount. — 509. Alone = the only ? or able single-handed to be ? 
Difference between ' only ' and ' alone ' ? — 512. Globe. Circle or ring (as glo- 
bus, uEn. X. 373) ? or sphere ?- Masson prefers the latter, and refers to Par. 
Reg. IV. 581-82, ' a fiery globe of angels.' Fiery. " This is the meaning of 
seraph." Keightley. See note on I. 129. — 513. Emblazonry. Seel. 1.538. 
Horrent, bristling, erect. See 'horrid,* I. 563. — 514. Cry, as a crier pro- 
claims. — 515. Regal. What fitness in this word ? — 517. Alchemy. 
*' White alchemy is made of pan-brass one pound, and arsenicum three ounces; 
or of copper and auripigmentiam " (ore of arsenic). Bacon. Alchemy proper 
was the pretended art of transmuting metals ; hence the word is used for any 
metals mixed with chemical skill ? — 518. Harald's. This spelling is Milton's. 
Explained. The trumpet blast is instantly followed by the crier's voice ex- 
plaining its full meaning ? The sound of this line is thought to echo the sense. 
Abyss, ffell ? or Chaos ? In I. 543, the shout is distinctly heard outside the 
walls of hell ! — 521. Thence. In consequence of this ? or from that S20ot ? 
or after that timet — ^2\-2% Ranged . . . disband. Had they remained 



82 PARADISE LOST. 

Disband ; and, wandering, each his several way 

Pursues, as inclination or sad choice 

Leads him perplexed, where he may likeliest find 525 

Truce to his restless thoughts, and entertain 

The irksome hours, till his great chief return. 

Part on the plain, or in the air sublime, 

Upon the wing, or in swift race contend. 

As at the Olympian games or Pythian fields ; 530 

Part curb their fiery steeds, or shun the goal 

With rapid wheels, or fronted brigades form : 

As when, to warn proud cities, war appears 

Waged in the troubled sky, and armies rush 

To battle in the clouds ; before each van 535 

Prick forth the aery knights, and couch their spears 

Till thickest legions close ; with feats of arms 

Prom either end of heaven the welkin burns. 

Others, with vast Typhoean rage, more fell, 

in order under arms till then ? What does this show as to their absence from 
the great hall ? — 626. Entertain (Lat. inter, between ; tenere, to hold ; Fr. 
entretenir ; Ital. intrattenere), while away, beguile. — 528, etc. Similar the 
games in Elysium, JEn. VI. 642, etc. ; also in the Greek army before Troy 
while Achilles abstained from battle. II. II. 112>-15. See, too, the mention of 
•heroic games' among the good angels, IV. 551, 552. (Does not this last cita- 
tion suggest a joyousness in heaven quite the reverse of the tedious solemni- 
ties and perpetual psalm-singing which Taine pretends to find to be the sole 
business of Milton's angels ?) On the plain, where the great muster anji review 
were held. Or, either ? Sublime ( Lat . sublevdre, to lift ; sublimis, high ), aloft. 
— 530. Olympian games, foot-races, horse-races, wrestling, boxing, leaping, 
armor-races, throwing the discus, etc? They were celebrated every fifth year 
at Olympia in Elis. See Class. Diet. Pythian fields, in the Crissaean plain 
near Delphi, where, every fifth year, were athletic sports, horse-races, con- 
tests in singing, art, etc. See Class. Diet. — 5S1, 532. Fiery steeds. Horses 
of fire and chariots of fire are mentioned in the Scriptures, 2 Kings ii. 11 ; 
vi. 17. See Ps. Ixviii. 17; Hab. iii. 8. Shun the goal with rapid wheels. 
This of course suggests Horace's inetaque fervidis evUaia roils, and the goal 
shunned with burning wheels. Odes, I. i. 4. The goal was a cone-shaped 
cypress column, around which the chariot flew in the race. Fronted, con- 
fronting. — 533-38. As when, etc. The aurora borealis ? Virgil ( Geoi\ I. 
474) says, " Germany heard the sound of arms in tlie whole sky " ; and Shakes. 
{Jul. C(£S. II. II. 19, 20), " Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds in 



PARADISE LOST. 83 

Eend up both rocks and hills, and ride the air 540 

In whirlwind ; hell scarce holds the wild uproar : 

As when Alcides, from QEchalia crowned 

"With conquest, felt the envenomed robe, and tore 

Through pain up by the roots Thessalian pines, 

And Lichas. from the top of (Eta threw 545 

Into the Euboic sea. Others, more mild, 

Eetreated in a silent valley, sing 

With notes angelical to many a harp 

Their own heroic deeds, and hapless fall 

By doom of battle, and complain that Fate 550 

Free Virtue should enthrall to Force or Chance. 

Their song was partial ; but the harmony 

(What could it less when spirits immortal sing 1) 

Suspended hell, and took with ravishment 

ranks and squadrons and right form of war." Troubled sky. Shakes, has 
* troubled heaven,' Henry IV., 1. 1. 10. — Prick their horses with the spur '{ So, 
" A gentle knight was pricking on the plain," beginning of Faerie Queene. 
Couch (Fr. coucher, to place in rest), place in rest against a portion of the 
breast armor ? Close, grapple. "Welkin (A. S. wolcen, Ger. Wolke, cloud. 
Perhaps from the woolly (Ger. Wolle, wool) aspect of the clouds. Wedgewood. 
Morris derives it fr. wealcan, to roll, turn, — 539. Others. These are not 
*on the plain' (1. 528), but in a rocky, hilly region, probably not far away. 
See I. 670, Typhcean. Typhoeus (pronounced Ty-pho'-eus, trisyl.) was the 
same as Typhon, who, according to the Athenian writer ApoUodorus, hurled 
great rocks against heaven. See 1. 199, — 540, Ride the air. " Infected be the 
air whereon they ride." Macbeth, IV. i. See note 1. 663. — 542. Alcides, 
Hercules, grandson of Alcaeus, (Echalia, a city near the middle of Eubcea, or, 
as some say, in Thessaly. — 543, Conquest, of Eurytus, King of (Echalia. 
Bobe, which Deianira, wife of Hercules, unwittingly steeped in poisoi^ think- 
ing the substance had a magic power to win back her husband's affection. 
See Class. Diet. Ovid. Met. IX. 136, etc. — 545. Lichas, the luckless bearer 
of the poisoned robe to Hercules. CEta, a rugged pile of mountains in the 
S. E, of Thessaly. See Ov, Met. IX. 136 to 229 ; and the masterly dramatic 
treatment of the whole in Sophocles' Trachinice. — 546. Euboic Sea, be- 
tween the mainland of Greece and the island Euboea, — 547. Retreated, 
retired, withdrawn. —551. Virtue should enthrall, etc. Bentley pointed 
out the origin of this line in the whining utterance which Dion Cassius alleges 
to have been quoted from Euripides by Brutus just before his suicide, " Im- 
pudent virtue, thou wast, then, mere talk, I practised thee as a reality ; but 
thou wast, it would seem, enthralled to force" (or 'enthralled to chance,'' ac- 
cording to another reading) — 554. So at the music of Orpheus in hell, the 



84 PARADISE LOST. 

The thronging audience. In discourse more sweet 555 

(For eloquence the soul, song charms the sense) 

Others apart sat on a hill retired, 

In thoughts more elevate, and reasoned high 

Of providence, foreknowledge, will, and fate, 

Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute, 560 

And found no end, in wandering mazes lost. 

Of good and evil much they argued then, 

Of happiness and final misery, 

Passion and apathy, and glory and shame ; 

Vain wisdom all, and false philosophy ! 565 

Yet, with a pleasing sorcery, could charm 

Pain for a while, or anguish, and excite 

Fallacious hope, or arm the obdured breast 

With stubborn patience as with triple steel. 

Another part, in squadrons and gross bands, 570 

On bold adventure to discover wide 

That dismal world, if any clime perhaps 

snaky-tressed Eumenides were spell-bound, Cerberus held his triple mouth 
agape, and the wheel of Ixion stood still. Virg. Georg. IV., 481-4. Took, 
captivated. Milton shows here, as often elsewhere, his fondness for music. — 
556. Eloquence the soul, song charms the sense. How far is tliis distinc- 
tion true? — 558. Elevate. Others ? or thoughts ? As in 1. 193, the omission 
of d is for euphony. The principle, as shown in ' Early English,' is thus stated 
by Morris : " If the root of a verb end indoTt doubled or preceded by another 
consonant, the d or t of the past participle is omitted. Sjjcciviens, XXXV. 
Reasoned high. The endless and fruitless discussions of insoluble questions 
by the schoolmen, half theologians, half metaphysicians, here have their pro- 
totype ! See Himes's Study of Par. Lost, p. 47. — 560. The repetition with 
epithets suggests the mazes of puzzling and barren 'philosophy.' What Mil- 
ton himself thought on these themes is hinted in III. 110-30. Absolute = 
apart from predestination? — 561. Wandering. Causing to wander? or 
coming and going "^ — 562. Of good, etc. ; i. e. ' suvimum honuvi, of the origin 
of evil, and other philosophic topics, on wliich also certainty is not to be at- 
tained.' Keightley. — 564. Apathy. The Stoics argued that the wise man 
feels neither pain nor pleasure. — 566. Charm. As music did the torments of 
Prometheus and Tantalus. Hor. Odes, II. xiii. 33-38. — 568. Obdured (Lat. 
obduro, I harden), hardened. — 569. Triple. Horace says, "That man had 
oak and triple brass around his breast, who first entrusted a frail vessel to the 
merciless ocean." — 570. Squadrons, battalions. See note on I. 758. Gross 



PARADISE LOST. 85 

Might yield them easier habitation, bend 

Four ways their flying march, along the banks 

Of four infernal rivers, that disgorge 575 

Into the burning lake their baleful streams — 

Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate ; 

Sad Acheron of sorrow, black and deep j 

Cocytus, named of lamentation loud 

Heard on the rueful stream ; tierce Phlegeton, 580 

Whose waves of torrent fire inflame with rage. 

Far off from these, a slow and silent stream, 

Lethe, the river of oblivion, rolls 

Her watery labyrinth ; whereof who drinks, 

Forthwith his former state and being forgets, 585 

Forgets both joy and grief, pleasure and pain. 

Beyond this flood a frozen continent 

Lies dark and wild, beat with perpetual storms 

Of whirlwind and dire hail, which on firm land 

Thaws not, but gathers heap, and ruin seems 590 

Of ancient pile ; all else deep snow and ice, 

A gulf profound as that Serbonian bog 

(Lat. crassus, thick ; Fr. gros, "big, great), large. — 574. Flying. Whyjlying ? 

— 575. Four infernal rivers. The topography of hell must be somewhat as 
shown by the diagrams of Prof. Himes in the Introduction, p. xvi. — 577-80. 
Styx (Gr. StuI, styx, hateful ; arvycw, I hate), the river of hate. Acheron 
(Gr. &XOS, ache ; p^(o, I flow), the river of pain. Cocytus (Gr. kcokvu, I wail), 
the river of tvailing. Phlegeton (Gr. (pXeyw, I burn), the river of Jire. Tor- 
rent (Lat. torrens), scorching or rushing. Milton perhaps combines both 
meanings here. Virg. ^n. VI. 550, called it 'a river rapid with torrent 
flames'; Silius Italicus, XIV. 62, Horrent of flames.' These four rivers 
are named in the tenth book of the Odyssey. — 581. Inflame. Neuter? or 
active? to he on fire? or to set on fire? — 583. Lethe (Gr. ^t^^tj, lethe, 
forgetfulness), oblivion. Why 'slow and silent '? — 584. Labyrinth. As 
the Egyptian labyrinth was half undergroimd, are we to understand the same 
of this river ? that it ran with intricate windings ■' through caverns measure- 
less to man, down to a sunless sea'? In Virg. JEn. VI. 705, and Dante, 
Inferno, XIV. 136, Lethe is, as here, somewhat remote from the other streams. 

— 587. Frozen continent, etc. This terrible picture is all Milton's own, 
though Dante {Infer, III. 87) names Hhe eternal shades in heat and frost' 
(so Purg. III. 11), and Shakes. {Meas. for Meas. III. i.) 'thrilling regions 



86 PARADISE LOST. 

Betwixt Damiata and mount Casius old, 

Where armies whole have sunk : the parching air 

Burns frore, and cold performs the effect of fire. 595 

Tliither, by harpy-footed furies haled, 

At certain revolutions all the damned 

Are brought ; and feel by turns the bitter change 

Of fierce extremes, extremes by change more fierce, 

From beds of raging fire to starve in ice 600 

Their soft ethereal warmth, and there to pine. 

Immovable, infixed, and frozen round 

Periods of time ; thence hurried back to fire. 

They ferry over this Lethean sound 

Both to and fro, their sorrow to augment, 605 

of thick-ribbed ice.' —589. Dire hail is Horatian, Odes, I, n. 1, 2.-592. 
Serbonian bog. Mentioned with Mount Casius in Herod. II. 6 ; also in III. 5. 
About 1,000 stadia (somewhat less than 125 miles) in circuit, surrounded 
l»y knolls of shitting sand, which in high winds was swept into the lake till 
the water was hardly distinguishable from land. — 593. Damiata. Daniietta, 
a city of about 25,000 inhabitants, on the right bank of the principal 
eastern branch of the Nile, eight miles (five more than formerly) from the 
Mediterranean. Casius, now Cape El-Cas, about 70 miles east of Damietta ? 
Here reposed the remains of the murdered Pompey. "Many of those 
ignorant of the peculiarity of the region have disappeared (here) with 
whole armies." Diodurus the Sicilian, I. 35. Lucan, Pharsal. VIII. 539, 
calls it a 'perfidious land.' — 595. Frore, (A. S. froren, participle o{ frc6s%)i, 
to freeze), frozen, with frost. Virgil, Oeor. I. 93, Xenojihon, Anah. IV. 5, 3, 
and Ecclesiasticus, XLIII. 20, 21, speak of the cold north wind's burning. 
The effect, etc. This is shown by touching the flesh with carbonic acid gas 
solidified by intense cold — 596. Harpy-footed furies. The Furies, incar- 
nations of the torments of a guilty conscience, were properly three in num- 
ber. Milton gives them the talons of harpies ('snatchers,' personified storm- 
winds). Persons who have mysteriously disappeared are represented as 
carried away by harpies. {Odys. 1. 241.) — 600. Starve (A. S. steorfan, to die ; 
Ger. sterhen ; A. S. deorfan, to labor painfully, to perish), to suffer; to waste, 
" The pain of intense cold seems to have entered most powerfully into the 
northern conceptions of hell." Masson. —601. Ethereal (Gr. aXdo), aitho, 
I kindle, light up; aldrjp, aither, space filled with light, sky filled with pure 
fire). The ethereal warmth is that warmth proper to bodies composed of 
fiery essence or dwelling in the empyrean. — 604. Sound (A. S. sund^ swim- 
ming), an arm of the sea that can be swum over. This etymology, harmonizing 
with the ordinary use of the word (as also the term 'ford,' 1. 612), tends to 
show that 'infinite abyss,' in 1. 405, is not Lethe, as some have supposed. — 



PARADISE LOST. 87 

And wish and struggle, as they pass, to reach 

The tempting stream, with one small drop to lose 

In sweet forgetfulness all pain and woe, 

All in one moment, and so near the brink ; 

But fate withstands, and, to oppose the attempt, 6io 

Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards 

The ford, and of itself the water flies 

All taste of living wight, as once it fled 

The lip of Tantalus. Thus roving on 

In confused march forlorn, the adventrous hands, 615 

With shuddering horror pale, and eyes aghast, 

Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 

No rest. Through many a dark and dreary vale 

They passed, and many a region dolorous, 

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 620 

Eocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades of death, 

A universe of death ! which God by curse 

Created evil, for evil only good ; 

610. Fate withstands (Lat./ato obstanf, JEn. IV. 440). — 611. Medusa, chief 
of the three Gorgons, who were frightful maidens with wings, scales, brazen 
claws, enormous teeth, and snaky hair. Whoever looked upon her face was 
changed to stone. See Class. Diet. — 612. Water flies. All of this passage 
is ' a fine allegory to show that there is no forgetfulness in hell.' Newton. — 
614. Tantalus, tormented with thirst, up to his chin in water which fled as 
he stooped to drink. —615. Forlorn. What was? — 617. First = for the 
first time? — 618. No rest. The critics cite the case of the unclean spirit 
walking through dry places, seeking rest and finding none, Matt. xii. 43 ; 
Luke xi. 24. —619. Dolorous. At the beginning of the 3d Canto of the In- 
ferno, Dante rings the changes on dole, dolent, dolorous, etc. — 620. Frozen 
. . . fiery Alp. He may have thought of Iceland, where the most terrible 
volcanoes are in close proximity to ice-covered mountains ? Alp (Gaelic, 
meaning height, mountain ). — 621. " The poet here rises into a very powerful 
climax. The monosyllabic words are strongly expressive both of the rugged 
horror of the infernal world, and of the toiling enterprise of its explorers." 
Hunter. Burke cites the line as an example of " a very great degree of the 
sublime, which is raised yet higher by what follows, A universe OF death " ! 
Eocks (of death ?), caves (of death ?). — 623. Created evil. Milton is justi- 
fied by the Scripture, " I make peace, and create evil ; I the Lord do all 
these things." Isaiah xlv. 7. In IV. 110, Satan deliberately says, "Evil, be 
thou my good." In scanning, do not slur nor drop the syllables of ' evil.' — 



88 PARADISE LOST. 

Where all life dies, death lives, and Nature breeds, 
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious things, 625 

Abominable, inutterable, and worse 
Than fables yet have feigned or fear conceived, 
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire. 

Meanwhile the adversary of God and man, 
Satan, with thoughts inflamed of highest design, 630 

Puts on swift wings, and towards the gates of hell 
Explores his solitary flight : sometimes 
He scours the right hand coast, sometimes the left ; 
Now shaves with level wing the deep, then soars 
Up to the fiery concave towering high. 635 

As when far off at sea a fleet descried 
Hangs in the clouds, by equinoctial winds 

625, Prodigious (Lat-^rof^ig-iMm, prodigy, portent), portentous. So Shakes, 
uses the word. Jul. Cces. I. 3 ; Rich. III., I. 11. 22. — 626. Do not drop the 
unemphatic syllables, nor attempt to reduce the metre to tame uniformity. — 
628. Virgil locates these monsters in hell. ^n. VI. 286-9. Hydras (Gr. 
"TSpo, Lat. hydra, water-serpent). The Lernsean was nine-headed. Vii'gil 
(yfe'/i. VI. 576) mentions a fifty-mouthed hydra in hell. Chimeras, fire- 
breathing monsters, with the heads of lions, the bodies of goats, and the tails 
of serpents. See Class. Diet. — 631. Puts on. "It is a question whether 
this is to be understood literally." Storr. Aeronauts and learned critics are 
easily puzzled by poets ! A little imagination, and a glance at I. 175, 674, 
II, 700, V. 276-7 ('proper shape a seraph winged') would have shown that 
Hermes' fastening winged sandals under his feet ([Had, XXIV, 340; ^n. 
IV. 239) is no parallel ? Gates. Had he previous knowledge of their locality ? 
See note on 1. 436, — 632. Explores his solitary flight. ' Being alone flies ex- 
ploring the region. ' Keightley. Is this explanation satisfactory ? — 633. Scours 
(Dan. skure, to rub ; Fr, escurer, ecurer), goes swiftly past within touching 
distance. —634. Shaves (Lat. scab^re ; Ger. schahen, to scrape), skims along 
(with wings that might cut the foam !). More poetical than Virgil's radii iter 
liquidum? JEn. V. 217. Deep. What?— 635. Towering. Belongs to 
concave? or to Satan ? — 636-48. "The general effect of this elaborated 
simile is very grand." Ross. What are its salient parts ? — 637. Hangs, etc. 
" No commentator, as far as I know, has observed that this is an expansion of 
Herecopos, literally high in air ; then, of ships, out at sea." Storr (edition of 
1874, Rivingtons). But 'hangs in the clouds' is hardly an expansion of 'is 
high in air' ; and Major in his edition of 1853, says, "So the Greeks term 
ships out at sea fierfcopoi," and in confirmation he quotes Arnold on Thuc. I. 
112. The word fxerewpos, meteijros, spoken of a ship, perhaps more properly 



PARADISE LOST. 89 

Close sailing from Bengala, or the isles 

Of Ternate and Tidore, whence merchants bring 

Their spicy drugs ; they on the trading flood, 640 

Through the wide Ethiopian to the Cape, 

Ply stemming nightly toward the pole : so seemed 

Far off the flying fiend. At last appear 

Hell-bounds, high reaching to the horrid roof, 

And thrice threefold the gates ; three folds were brass, 

Three iron, three of adamantine rock, 646 

Impenetrable, impaled with circling fire. 



means ' hisfli at sea/ or ' on the high seas.' (See Milton's use of ' meteorous,* 
XII. 629, 630, spoken of angels gliding on the ground like mist.) Accounts 
are given of sliips mirrored in the clouds, and so visible at a great distance 
while yet below the horizon. Equinoctial, on or near the equator? The 
commentators fail to notice the reason why Milton says equinoctial. Perhaps 
because Satan is flying in the equatorial or middle region of hell ? Like the 
fleet, he is indistinctly seen in 'the dusky air,' high, vast, and moving south ? 
— 638. Close sailing. Sailing in a compact group ? or sailing close to the 
wind ? In what direction blow the monsoons ? Bengala, Bengal. — 639. 
Ternate and Tidore, two of the famous Spice Islands or Moluccas. They 
are less than one degree from the equator. — 6i0. They, the large merchant- 
ships ? Trading flood. So named by Milton with as good right as the steady 
winds are named 'trade winds.' —641. Wide Ethiopian, the vast Indian 
Ocean, Is the word 'Ethiopian,' used delicately to suggest darkness ? or is it 
merely 'because it washes the eastern shores of Ethiopia, as Africa S. of 
Egypt used to be called ' ? Cape, of Good Hope. — 642. Ply. As a nautical 
term, ply means either 'make regular trips,' or 'endeavor to make way 
against the wind.' To 'ply' is sometimes to work one's way biisily, or pur- 
sue one's com'se with diligence or pertinacity. Which meaning is best here ? 
Stemming, cutting through the water with the ship's stem ? or sailing ' close 
to the wind,' the monsoon blowing six months from the S. W. ? or 'working 
the stem of the ship in the night-time to avoid land, bearing off towards the 
south ' ? Nightly. ' Because the constellation of the Cross by which they 
may be supposed to steer, is visible only by night ' ? or ' night by night ' ? or 
is 'nightly' used rather than 'daily,' to convey a notion of the darkness of 
Satan's journey ? Pole. Meaning? — 643. At last appear, etc. Taine, 
who dislikes Milton and misrepresents him, cannot suppress his ad- 
miration of the next thirty lines. Quoting them, he says, "No poetic 
creation equals in horror and grandeur the spectacle that greeted Satan on 
leaving his dungeon." — 646. Adamantine. 1.436. — 647. Impaled (Lat. 
palus, a stake), inclosed, paled in, surrounded. So in Shakes, ; also in Mil- 



90 PARADISE LOST. 

Yet unconsumed. Before the gates there sat 

On either side a formidable shape. 

The one seemed woman to the waist, and fair ; 650 

But ended foul in many a scaly fold 

Voluminous and vast — a serpent armed 

AVith mortal sting. About her middle round 

A cry of hell-hounds never-ceasing barked 

With wide Cerberean mouths full loud, and rung 655 

A hideous peal . . . Far less abhorred than these 

Vexed Scylla, bathing in the sea that parts 660 

Calabria from the hoarse Trinacrian shore ; 

Nor uglier follow the night-hag, when, called 

In secret, riding through the air she comes, 

ton's prose. — 648. XTnconsumed, Prof. Himes finds in the phenomena of 
the aurora borealis a physical basis for this picture ; especially as the gates 
were probably at the outer boundary of the ' frozen continent.' — 648. Before, 
etc. The famous allegory which follows is founded on James i. 15, "Then 
when Lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth Sin, and Sin, Avhen it is finished, 
bringeth forth Death." — 650. Woman, etc. The commentators cite, as par- 
tial sources of Milton's description of Sin, FaeHe Queene, 1. 1. 14; II. vii. 40; 
Fletcher's Purple Island, XII. 27 ; Hesiod's Theogony, 298; Horace's DeArte 
Poet. 4 ; Ovid's Met. XIV, 59-67. Note the alliteration in several of these lines. 
—653. Sting. " The sting of death is sin." 1 Cor. xv. 56. — 654. Cry, pack. 
*' You common cry of curs." Shakes. Coriolanus, III. 3. The liell-hounds are 
the horrors of a guilty conscience.? — 655-56. Cerberean, like those of Cer- 
berus, the three-headed dog that guarded the gates of hell. See Class. Diet. 
Bung, etc. * Hath rung night's yawning peal.' Macbeth, TIL n. 43. — 659. 
Less abhorred hounds than these. — 660, Scylla. The story is that Scylla 
was once a beautiful maiden, but that the enchantress Circe changed her body 
below her waist into barking monsters by infecting with baleful juices the water 
in which Scylla was wont to bathe. Says Homer, " She lias twelve feet, and six 
long necks, with a terrific head and three rows of close-set teeth on each . . . 
Out of every ship that passes, each mouth takes a man ." Odys. XII. 89, etc. See 
Class. Diet. — 661. Trinacrian (Gr. rp€7s, treis, three; &Kpat, akrai, pro- 
montories ; Trinacria, land of 'the three promontories,' on the N. E., S. E., 
and W.), Sicilian. Calabria = Southern Italy, including in the middle ages 
the land of the Bruttii. — 662. Nor uglier hell-hounds follow. Night-hag. 
' From the Scandinavian mythology, in which niglit-hags, riding through the 
air, and requiring infant blood for their incantations, are common, and Lapland 
is their favorite region,' Masson. — QGS. Riding, etc. " Infected be the air 
whereon they [witches] ride." Macbeth, IV. i. 138. "Grimm tells us that he 



PARADISE LOST. 91 

Lured with the smell of infant blood, to dance 

With Lapland witches, while the laboring moon 665 

Eclipses at their charms. The other shape — 

If shape it might be called that shape had none 

Distinguishable in member, joint, or limb j 

Or substance might be called that shadow seemed, 

For each seemed either — black it stood as night, 670 

Fierce as ten furies, terrible as hell. 

And shook a dreadful dart : what seemed his head 

The likeness of a kingly crown had on. 

Satan was now at hand, and from his seat 

The monster moving onward came as fast 675 

With horrid strides ; hell trembled as he strode. 

The undaunted fiend what this might be admired — 

Admired, not feared, God and his Son except : 

does not Imow when broom-sticks, spits, and similar -utensils were first 
assumed to be the canonical instruments of this nocturnal equitation. He 
thinks it comparatively modern ; but I suspect it is as old as the first child 
that ever bestrode his father's staff, and fancied it into a courser shod with 
wind, like those of Pindar. Alas for the poverty of human invention ! It 
cannot afford a hippogriff for an every-day occasion. The poor old crones, 
badgered by inquisitors into confessing they had been where they never were, 

were involved in the further necessity of explaining how the they got there. 

The only steed their parents had ever been rich enough to keep had been of this 
domestic sort. ... If youth and good spirits could put such life into a dead 
stick once, why not age and evil spirits now?" Lowell's essay on Witch- 
craft in Among my Books. Falstaff mounts their master on a different nag, 
a fiddlestick. 1 Henry IV., II. iv. — 665. Laboring. VirgU calls hmar 
eclipses lunce lahores, labors of the moon. Juvenal has the precise equivalent. 
Sat. VI. 443. —666. Charms. Meaning? — The other shape, etc. "The 
grandest efforts of poetiy," remarks Coleridge on this passage, "are where the 
imagination is called forth to produce, not a distinct form, but a strong work-^ 
ing of the mind, still offering what is still repelled, and again creating what is 
again rejected ; the result being what the poet wishes to impress ; viz. the 
substitution of a sublime feeling of the imaginable for mere images." Test 
this celebrated description of Death by Coleridge's principle. See Job iv. 13 
to 17. — 673. Kingly crown. Because Death is ' the king of terrors ' ? Job 
xviii. 14 ; Rev. vi. 2, 8. — 676. Trembled as he strode. Hence Prof. Himes 
infers, contrary to Masson's opinion, that the gates were not at the highest 
point of the concave roof overhead, but 'in a perpendicular wall ' at the 
' boundary of hell's outmost circle of extreme cold.' See Introduction. — 677. 



92 PARADISE LOST. 

Created thing nought valued he, nor shunned ; 

And with disdainful look thus first began : — 680 

" Whence, and what art thou, execrable shape, 
That darest, though grim and terrible, advance 
Thy miscreated front athwart my way 
To yonder gates 1 Througli them I mean to pass, 
That be assured, without leave asked of thee. 685 

Eetire ! or taste thy folly, and learn by proof. 
Hell-born, not to contend with spirits of heaven ! " 

To whom the goblin full of wrath replied : — 
" Art thou that traitor-angel, art thou he, 
"Who first broke peace in heaven, and faith, till then 690 
Unbroken, and in proud rebellious arms 
Drew after him the third part of heaven's sons 
Conjured against the Highest ; for which both thou 
And they, outcast from God, are here condemned 
To waste eternal days in woe and pain 1 695 

And reckonest thou thyself with spirits of heaven. 
Hell-doomed, and breathest defiance here and scorn. 

Admired, wondered. I. 690. — 678. Except. This sentence, beginning with 
'God' and ending with ' shunned,' is \isually conceded to be in strictness un- 
grammatical, or at least un-English ; as if God and his Son were included by Mil- 
ton among created things. The commentators seek to justify Milton by quoting 
similar examples from Dante and other great poets, Sir Thomas Browne and 
other eminent prose writers. But suppose we interpret thus : '' The undaunted 
Fiend wondered what this might be ; wondered, not feared [what this might 
be], except [it were] God and his Son." Prof. Himes remarks : ''To the Son 
are ascribed [by Milton] omnipotence, omniscience, and, through the continual 
presence of the Father, infinity in every respect. He is never represented as 
accomplishing any of his great works without the Father ; but whatever he 
does, and wherever he goes, the Father is always with him (VH. 588-90). 
... He had existed with God as his Word (sensible to hearing as now to 
sight from eteniity. He is not God alone without the Father ; neither is 
the Father God alone without the Son, inasmucli as he calls the Son 'my word, 
my wisdom, my effectual might.' " HI. 170. —688. Goblin (Fr. gobelin, an 
ugly spirit ; Welsh, cohlyn ; Ger, kohold, an underground spirit that creeps in 
mines; Gr. K<J)8aAos, kobalos ; Armoric, gnhilin, 'lubbar-fiend'), a frightful 
phantom. — 692. Rev. xii. 4, 7, 9.-693. Conjured (Lat. con, together, 
jurare, to swear), sworn together, in sworn conspiracy. Conjured. — 696. 
Spirits of heaven, the rotoit to 1. 687 ; as hell-doomed is to hell-horn. — 



PARADISE LOST. 93 

Where I reign king, and, to enrage thee more, 

Thy king and lord 1 Back to thy punishment, 

False fugitive ! and to thy speed add wings, 700 

Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue 

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart 

Strange horror seize thee, and pangs unfelt before ! " 

So spake the grisly terror, and in shape. 
So speaking and so threatening, grew tenfold 705 

More dreadful and deform. On the other side, 
Incensed with indignation, Satan stood 
Unterrified, and like a comet burned. 
That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge 
In the arctic sky, and from his horrid hair 710 

Shakes pestilence and war. Each at the head 
Levelled his deadly aim ; their fatal hands 
No second stroke intend ; and such a frown 
Each cast at the other as when two black clouds, 

700. False. Why false? — 701. King Rehoboam threatened, *'My father 
hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." 
1 Kings xii. 11. Whip of scorpions is a name, like ' cat-o-nine-tails.' — 706. 
Deform (Lat. de, from, away from ; forma, beauty). — 707. Incensed (Lat. 
incendere, to set on fire ; candere^ to be glowing hot), aflame, on fire. — 709. 
Ophiuchus (Gr. ocpis, ophis, serpent ; exeti^, echein, to hold; ocpiovxos), the 
serpent-holder, a northern constellation forty degrees long, formerly pictured 
as a man with his foot on the scorpion, his head near that of Hercules, 
and holding a serpent in his hand. See map of these constellations. Is 
there any significance in this collocation (which does not seem to have 
attracted the attention of the commentators) ? Satan, Sin, Death, in the 
poem ; the comet, Hercules, the Scorpion, the Serpent, and the gigantic 
Serpent-holder, in the sky ! —710, 711. Hair. Comet is from Gr. /co/ai/jttjs, 
hairy, fr. K<^/i77, flowing hair. Shakes pestilence, etc. The old belief that 
comets portend disasters, is uttered in the first three lines of 1 Henry VI. 
(see Proctor's essay on Comets as Portents in his Myths and Marvels of 
Astronomy) : — 

"Hung be the heavens with black, yield day to night. 

Comets, importing change of time and states, 

Brandish your crystal tresses in the sky." — 
714. As when, etc. " Not quite correct, for bodies in the air cannot move 
in opposite directions, as the wind blows only one way at a time." Keightley. 
The meteorologists do not agree with Mr. Keightley. " When opposite winds 



94 PARADISE LOST. 

With heaven's artillery fraught, come rattling on 715 

Over the Caspian, then stand front to front 

Hovering a space, till winds the signal blow 

To join their dark encounter in mid air: 

So frowned the mighty combatants that hell 

Grew darker at their frown ; so matched they stood ; 720 

For never but once more was either like 

To meet so great a foe. And now great deeds 

Had been achieved, whereof all hell had rung, 

Had not the snaky sorceress, that sat 

Fast by hell gate and kept the fatal key, 725 

Eisen, and with hideous outcry rushed between. 

" father ! what intends thy hand," she cried, 
" Against thy only son 1 What fury, son, 
Possesses thee to bend that mortal dart 
Against thy father's head ? and knowest for whom ! 730 
For him who sits above, and laughs the while 
At thee ordained his drudge to execute 
Whate'er his wrath, which he calls justice, bids — 
His wrath, which one day will destroy ye both ! " 

She spake, and at her words the hellish pest 735 

Forbore : then these to her Satan returned : — 

" So strange thy outcry, and thy words so strange 

of different temperature meet," says Guyot, explaining the cause of tornadoes, 
** a vast amount of vapor is condensed into a thick black cloud, and a whirl- 
ing motion is given to the air," etc. — 715. Fraught, etc. {Ger.fracht; Ft. 
•fret, freight, the loading of a wagon or a ship ; Gev. ferchen, to despatch; 
Swiss/e?'A-ew, to forward goods. Wedgwood.) Rattling. So artillery wagons 
always rnttJe. Heaven's artillery is a phrase in Shakes. — 716. The Caspian 
was noted for storms. " Nor do hurricanes forever harass the Caspian," Hor. 
Odes, II. 9. *' Clouds, together crushed and bruised, pour down a tempest 
by the Caspian shore." Fairfax's Tosso. So Purchas' Pilgrims, III. 
241 (A.D. 162.5).— 720. Grew darker, etc. "Where he looked, a gloom 
pervaded space." Byron. —T2\. Once more, etc. Christ is to destroy 
death (1 Cor. xv. 26), and the devil (Heb. ii. 14). See Isaiah xxv. 8.-724. 
Snaky. Why this ei)ithet ? — 7no. Knowest (the termination st, a relic of 
si for (TV, sn, thou, tu, thou, sufficiently indicates the subject thou), though 
thou knowest for whom thou doest it. —731. Laughs, etc. "He that 
sitteth in the heavens shall laugh." Ps. ii. 4. —735. So Ariosto calls the Fury 



PARADISE LOST. 95 

Thou interposest, that my sudden hand, 

Prevented, spares to tell thee yet by deeds 

What it intends, till first I know of thee 740 

"What thing thou art, thus double-formed, and why, 

In this infernal vale first met, thou callest 

Me father, and that phantasm callest my son. 

I know thee not, nor ever saw till now 

Sight more detestable than him and thee." 745 

To whom thus the portress of hell-gate replied : — 
" Hast thou forgot me, then, and do I seem 
Now in thine eye so foul 1 once deemed so fair 
In heaven, when at the assembly, and in sight 
Of all the seraphim with thee combined 750 

In bold conspiracy against heaven's king. 
All on a sudden miserable pain 
Surprised thee, dim thine eyes, and dizzy swum 
In darkness, while thy head flames thick and fast 
Threw forth, till on the left side opening wide, 755 

Likest to thee in shape and countenance bright, 
Then shining heavenly fair, a goddess armed, 
Out of thy head I sprung. Amazement seized 
All the host of heaven ; back they recoiled, afraid 
At first, and called me Sin, and for a sign 760 

Portentous held me ; but, familiar grown, 
I pleased, and with attractive graces won 
The most averse, tliee chiefly ; who, full oft 
Thyself in me thy perfect image viewing, 
Becamest enamored . . . Meanwhile war arose, 764 

And fields were fought in heaven ; wherein remained 
(For what could else "?) to our almighty foe 
Clear victory ; to our part, loss and rout 770 

Megseva. apest; also Virgil, the harpies, ^w., Til. 215.— 739. Spares, forbears. 
— 741. Double-formed. How? — 745. Than. Seel. 299.— 748. The universal 
experience ; fair at the time, foul afterwards. — 752. On a sudden, etc. As 
Minerva (wisdom) sprang into life from the brain of Jove, so Sin from the head 
of Satan. See Class. Diet, — 755. Leftside. \Yhy left? — 7Q8. Fields, battles. 



96 PARADISE LOST. 

Through all the empyrean. Down they fell, 

Driven headlong from the pitch of heaven, down 

Into this deep ; and in the general fall 

I also : at which time this powerful key 

Into my hand was given, with charge to keep 775 

These gates forever shut, which none can pass 

Without my opening. Pensive here I sat. . . . 

Distorted, all my nether shape thus grew 

Transformed ; but he my inbred enemy 785 

Forth issued, brandishing his fatal dart. 

Made to destroy. I fled, and cried out Death I 

Hell trembled at the hideous name, and sighed 

From all her caves, and back resounded Death ! , . . 

These yelling monsters, that with ceaseless cry 795 

Surround me, as thou sawest, hourly conceived 

And hourly born with sorrow infinite 

To me, . . . with conscious terrors vex me round, 801 

That rest or intermission none I find. 

Before mine eyes in opposition sits 

Grim Death, my son and foe, who sets them on, 

And me, his parent, would full soon devour 805 

For want of other prey, but that he knows 

His end with mine involved, and knows that I 

Should prove a bitter morsel, and his bane. 

Whenever that shall be : so Fate pronounced. 

But thou, O father 1 I forewarn thee, shun 810 

His deadly arrow ; neither vainly hope 

To be invulnerable in those bright arms, 

Though tempered heavenly ; for that mortal dint, 

Save he who reigns above, none can resist." 

So in Shakes. —771. Empyrean (Gr. eV, in, trvp, fire ; e/jLirvpos, in fire), the 
highest portion of space supposed to be pervaded by the pure element or 
essence of fire. See note on 1. 117.— 772. Pitch (Old Fr.jnc, high place ; akin to 
peak; or fr. oMpike), height. — 7 S7. Made. He? ordart?— SOI. Conscious. 
Meaning?— 80e3. Opposition, front? — 808. Bane. Because my death must end 
him?-- 813. Dint (' Bint, dent, dunt, all imitative of the sound of a blow.' 
Wedgwood), stroke, blow. — 814. Save he. So Shakes., " All the conspira- 



PARADISE LOST,, 97 

She finished, and the suhtle fiend his lore 815 

. Soon learned, now milder, and thus answered smooth : — 
"Dear daughter ! — since thou claimst me for thy sire, . . . 
I come no enemy, but to set free 
From out this dark and dismal house of pain 
Both him and thee, and all the heavenly host 
Of spirits that, in our just pretences armed, 825 

Fell with us from on high. From them I go 
This uncouth errand sole, and one for all 
Myself expose, with lonely steps to tread 
The unfounded deep, and through the void immense 
To search with wandering quest a place foretold 830 

Should be, and, by concurring signs, ere now 
Created vast and round ; a place of bliss 
In the purlieus of heaven ; and, therein placed 
A race of upstart creatures, to supply 

Perhaps our vacant room, though more removed, 835 

Lest heaven, surcharged with potent multitude, 
Might hap to move new broils. Be this, or aught 
Than this more secret, now designed, I haste 
To know j and, this once known, shall soon return, 
And bring ye to the place where thou and Death 840 

Shall dwell at ease, and up and down unseen 
Wing silently the buxom air, imbalmed 
With odors. There ye shall be fed and filled 
Immeasurably ; all things shall be your prey." 

tors, save only he," Jul. Cces. V. 5 ; * Save tliou,' sounet 109 ; * save 1/ 
Tioelfth Night, III. I. 172. Save (except that) he can, who, etc. — 815. Lore 
(A. S. leer, learning ; Iceran, to teach), lesson. — 825. Pretences, claims. So 
used in Shakes. — 827. Uncoutli, as in 1. 407.-829. Unfounded (Lat. sine 
/undo, without bottom ; Fr. sans fond). Bottomless ? or without foundation, 
treacherous? Deep. Hell? or Chaos? See note on 1. 405. — 8-33. Purlieus. 
Fr, pur, free ; lieu, place ; purlieu, a place free from trees (purus ah arboiibus), 
the outskirts of a forest ; or Fr. pour aller, for to walk ; purlieu, land once 
part of a royal forest but separated from it by perambulation (pour-aUee) 
granted by the crown. Placed, etc. A race that has heen placed therein ? — 
842. Buxom (A. S. beogan, bugan, to bow, to yield), yielding. Horace lias ce- 
dentem aera, yielding air. Sat. XL 2, 13.-843. Fed. "Death shall feed ou 



98 PARADISE LOST. 

He ceased ; for both seemed highly pleased, and Death 
Grinned horrible a ghastly smile, to hear 846 

His famine should be filled, and blessed his maw 
Destined to that good hour. No less rejoiced 
His mother bad, and thus bespake her sire : — 

" The key of this infernal pit, by due, 850 

And by command of heaven's all-powerful king, 
I keep, by him forbidden to unlock 
These adamantine gates : against all force 
Death ready stands to interpose his dart, 
Fearless to be o'ermatched by living might. 855 

But what owe I to his commands above. 
Who hates me, and hath hither thrust me down 
Into this gloom of Tartarus profound, 
To sit in hateful office here confined, 

Inhabitant of heaven and heavenly born, 860 

Here in perpetual agony and pain, 
With terrors and with clamors compassed round 1 . . , 
Thou art my father, thou my author ; thou 
My being gavest me : whom should I obey 865 

But thee 1 whom follow ? Thou wilt bring me soon 
To that new world of light and bliss, among 
The gods who live at ease, where I shall reign 

them." Ps. xlix. 14. —846. Grinned. Ajax (11. VII. 212), smiles 'with 
horrible countenance'; Minos (Dante's Inferno, Y. i) ' Standeth horribly 
and snarls ' ; Grantorto {Faerie Queene, V. xii. 16) is ' grinning griesly ' ; Syl- 
vester's dead are 'grinning ghastly'; Statius's Tydeus (Thebais, viii, 582) is 
' smiling dreadfully,' fonnidabile ridens ; Cowley's devils (Davideis), ' with a 
dreadful smile deformedly grin ' ; and in Horace {Odes, HI. xi. 21) Ixion and 
Tityos ' smiled with unwilling look.' Shakespeare has tried his pencil at the 
picture, and with what startling power ! 

" Within the hollow crown 
That rounds the mortal temples of a king, 
Keeps Death his court ; and there the antic sits, 
Scoffing his state, and grinning at his pomp ! " 

Richard II., lU. n. 160-163. 

847. Maw (Dutch maag, Ger. magen, stomach). Blessed, meaning he blessed 
his maw? or his maw should be blessed ?— 868. Gods who live at ease. 



PARADISE LOST. 99 

At thy right hand voluptuous, as beseems 

Thy daughter and thy darHng, without end." 870 

Thus saying, from her side the fatal key, 
Sad instrument of all our woe, she took ; 
And, towards the gate rolling her bestial train, 
Forthwith the huge portcuUis high up-drew, 
Which, but herself, not all the Stygian powers 875 

Could once have moved ; then in the keyhole turns 
The intricate wards, and every bolt and bar 
Of massy iron or solid rock with ease 
Unfastens. On a sudden open fly. 

With impetuous recoil and jarring sound, 880 

The infernal doors, and on their hinges grate 
Harsh thunder, that the lowest bottom shook 
Of Erebus. She opened ; but to shut 
Excelled her power : the gates wide open stood, 
That with extended wings a bannered host, 885 

Homer has deol pi7a ^coSvres, theoi reia zoontes, gods living at ease, II. VI. 
138 ; Odys. V. 122, rv. 805. Tennyson in Lotos-eaters makes Ulysses' crew 
propose to live thus ' like gods.' — 869-70. Right hand . . . daughter and 
darling. Just as the Messiah reigns at the Father's right hand, sou and well- 
beloved! —874. Portcullis (Fr. parte, Lat. porta, gate; coulisse, groove, 
grooved timher, or something that slides down ; couler, to slide, slip), a harrow- 
like gate of timbers framed and ii'on-pointed, hung over the entrance to a castle, 
and capable of being let slide down instantlj^ — 875. Which, but herself, etc. 
Allegory ? Meaning ? — 876-7. Turns. Unless we interpret ' wards ' to 
mean sliding bolts (a sense which Shakes, gives to 'ward,' Lucrece, 305), we 
may interpret 'turns,' 'passes round or by with the key '; just as we speak 
of 'turning a corner,' * turning the enemy's flank,' etc. There is no need of 
supposing, with Keightley and the locksmiths, that Milton made a mistake 
here. — 879-883. This is a famous passage. Observe closely the analogy which 
voice and movement bear to the things described. Contrast, VII. 205-7, 

" Heaven opened wide 
Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound, 
On golden hinges moving." 

Erebus, the realm of darkness, hell. — 883-4. Opened; but to shut 
excelled, etc. " Because none but God can put an end to the evils 
caused by sin." Keightley. Is this explanation valid ? Wide, etc. "For 
wide is the gate." Matt. vii. 13. — 885. Wings. What ? — 889. Redound- 



100 PARADISE LOST. 

Under spread ensigns marching, might pass through 

With horse and chariots ranked in loose array : 

So wide they stood, and like a furnace-mouth 

Cast forth redounding smoke and ruddy flame. 

Before their eyes in sudden view appear 890 

The secrets of the hoary deep, a dark 

Illimitable ocean, without bound, 

Without dimensions ; where length, breadth, and highth, 

And time, and place, are lost ; where eldest Night 

And Chaos, ancestors of Nature, hold 895 

Eternal anarchy amidst the noise 

Of endless wars, and by confusion stand. 

For Hot, Cold, Moist, and Dry, four champions fierce, 

Strive here for mastery, and to battle bring 

Their embryon atoms : they, around the flag 900 

Of each, his faction, in their several clans, 



ing (Lat. I'c, back ; uncla, wave), curling over and over like waves. Are we 
to suppose that a kind of volcanic force burst open the doors, and that the 
pent-up gases were belched out with explosions ? — 892. Illimitable, like 
infinite space. Is the word to be taken literally ? See 1. 976, 1038 ; 
III. 538. Why does he add 'without bound'? See next note. — 895. 
Nature, our visible universe (and perhaps we should add hell ?) formed from 
chaos and darkness. Masson points out how carefully Milton has accumu- 
lated perplexing thoughts in this description of chaos (891-916) for the purpose 
of producing the ' conception of sheer inconceivability.' The astounding 
denial of bound, dimension, length, breadth, height, time, and place! the 
eternal anarchy of ancestral Night and Chaos, darkness, noise, war, and con- 
fusion! the atomic theory of Democritus! the struggle of the four champions, 
the strife-doctrine of Heraclitus! the umpireship of indecisive Chaos and 
lawless Chance! the hopeless mixture of the seeds or pregnant causes 
of sea, shore, air, and fire ! the possibility, on the one hand, of more worlds 
to be framed out of this mixture, and on the other, of all nature sinking 
into cliaos again! The mind flounders, balked, baffled, puzzled, stunned, 
till introspection of itself gives a better idea of chaos than it ever 
had before ! The art of the poet is here wonderful. See the quotation from 
Coleridge, in note, 1. 66Q. — 898. In Ovid, Met. I. 19, we read, "Cold con- 
tended with warm, moist with dry, soft witli hard, heavy with light." — 900. 
Embryon atoms, atoms that make up tlie rudiments of an unborn organism 
or embryo (eV, en, witliin, fipveiv, bruein, to swell).. Around the flag of 
each, they, his faction, swarm ; or they, around the Jimj of each, who consti- 



PARADISE LOST. 101 

Light-armed or heavy, sliarp, smooth, swift, or slow, 

Swarm populous, unnumbered as the sands 

Of Barca or Gyrene's torrid soil. 

Levied to side with warring winds, and poise 905 

Their lighter wings. To whom these most adhere, 

He rules a moment. Chaos umpire sits, 

And by decision more embroils the fray 

By which he reigns. Next him, high arbiter, 

Chance governs all. Into this wild abyss, 910 

The womb of Nature and perhaps her grave, 

Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire, 

But all these in their pregnant causes mixed 

Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight, 

Unless the Almighty Maker them ordain 915 

His dark materials to create more worlds — 

Into this wild abyss the wary fiend 

Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while, 

Pondering his voyage ; for no narrow frith 

He had to cross. Nor was his ear less pealed 920 

With noises loud and ruinous (to compare 

Great things with small) than when Bellona storms 

With all her battering engines, bent to rase 

Some capital city ; or less than if this frame 

Of heaven were falling, and these elements 925 

In mutiny had from her axle torn 

tute his faction. The commentators raise difficulties needlessly here. — 904. 
Barca or Gyrene. ' The African deserts to the west of Egypt.' — 905. Levied. 
In its military sense ? or simply raised ? or both ? Poise, to balance, or hold 
in equilibrium? or to give weight to, to ballast? Shakes, nses poise = weigh ; 
also = counterbalance. — 906. These most. Most of these ? or these in 
greatest numbers f or most adhere f — 912. Sea, nor shore, water nor land. — 
917-8. Into . . . stood and looked = standing, looked into. — 919. Frith 
{Gaelic frith, little; Lat. fretum, narrow sea), arm of the sea, strait. — 920. 
Pealed ( Norweg. bylia, to resound, bellow), dinned, assailed. — 921. Ruinous, 
crashing. See I. 46. — 922. Bellona, Roman goddess of war, sister or wife of 
Mars. The tremendous din of the bombardment and storming of a great city 
is a small matter to this. — 924-5. If this frame, etc. Like Horace's 'si 
fractus illabatur orbis,' if a crushed world should fall upon (him). Odes, 111. 



102 * PARADISE LOST. 

The steadfast earth. At last his sail-broad vans 

He spreads for flight, and in the surging smoke 

Uplifted spurns the ground ; thence many a league, 

As in a cloudy chair, ascending rides 930 

Audacious ; hut, that seat soon faiHng, meets 

A vast vacuity ; all unawares. 

Fluttering his pennons vain, plumb down he drops 

Ten thousand fathom deep, and to this hour 

Down had been falling, had not, by ill chance, 935 

The strong rebuff of some tumultuous cloud, 

Instinct with fire and nitre, hurried him 

As many miles aloft. That fury stayed, 

Quenched in a boggy syrtis, neither sea 

Nor good dry land — nigh foundered, on he fares, 940 

Treading the crude consistence, half on foot, 

Half flying : behoves him now both oar and sail. 

As when a gryphon, through the wilderness 

With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale 

Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth 945 

Had from his wakeful custody purloined 

III. 7- Elements. Which? — 927. Vans (Lat. vannus, a wmnowing fan). — 
929. Spurns (A. S. sjmra, a spur, heel ; spurnan, to kick, thrust with the foot). 
— 931. Audacious = boldly. So in Shakes. —933. Pennons (Lat. jsemia, 
wing). Notice the alliteration, and the correspondence of sound with sense, 
in this and the next line. — 934. To this hour. Because there is no end to 
infinite space ? and nothing to lessen his momentum ? his gravitation would 
be away from God and heaven ? — 936. Rebuff (6?#, ' a blow, from imitation of 
the sound of a blow,' says Wedgwood), backward stroke, beating back. — 937. 
Instinct, inflamed, animated. — 938. As many. Ten thousand ? or as many 
miles as he fell ? Fury stayed, the fury of the rebuff" being stopped ? — 939- 
940. Quenched . . . land, explaining stayed; Foundered. See I. 204. Fares 
(A. ^./arcm, to go), travels, goes. See IV. 131. Hence farewell = go well (on the 
journey of life). — 941. Consistence, substance. —942. Behoves (Wedgwood 
makes it from ' heave,' ' heaving, ' or throwing ' at a mark ' ), befits (are meet for, 
are fit for,are needful to). " The Saxon behofian has both meanings, to be neces- 
sary, and to stand in need of." Sto7'r. Oar and sail, a proverbial phrase? — 
943-5. Gryphon . . . Arimaspian. Gryjdions, or grilRns, in the upper part like 
an eagle, in the lower resembling a lion, are said to guard gold mines. The Ari- 
maspians were a one-eyed people of Scythia, who adorned their hair with gold, 
* for which they had continual battle with the guardian gryphons.' Herodotus, 



PARADISE LOST. 103 

The guarded gold ; so eagerly the fiend 

O'er bog, or steep, through strait, rough, dense, or rare, 

With head, hands, wings, or feet, pursues his way. 

And swims, or sinks, or wades, or creeps, or flies. 950 

At length a universal hubbub wild 

Of stunning sounds and voices all confused. 

Borne through the hollow dark, assaults his ear 

With loudest vehemence. Thither he plies 

Undaunted, to meet there whatever power 955 

Or spirit of the nethermost abyss 

Might in that noise reside, of whom to ask 

Which way the nearest coast of darkness lies 

Bordering on light ; when straight behold the throne 

Of Chaos, and his dark pavilion spread 960 

Wide on the wasteful deep ! With him enthroned 

Sat sable- vested Night, eldest of things, 

The consort of his reign ; and by them stood 

Orcus and Ades, and the dreaded name 

Of Demogorgon ; Eumor next, and Chance, 965 

Pliny, and ^schylus are referred to as authorities on this point. — 948-9, 950. 
Note the richness of our language in monosyllables. Which of them are A. S. in 
origin? Does the soimd bear analogy to the sense? — 951. Hubbub. 'A 
repetition of hoop ! representing a cry.' Wedgwood. Keightley derives it 
from the Irish aboo, a war-cry. " The word is onomatopsetic, the reduplica- 
tion of the syllable producing the sense of confusion or number. Compare 
mur-mur, har-har-oV Ross. —954. Plies. See 1. 642. —956. Nethermost, 
' as being without bottom or termination ; ' Abyss, ' merely the Abyss or 
Chaos in general.' Keightley. Nethermost abyss, ' the lowest portion of the 
Abyss.' Masson. Choose! — 961. Wasteful ( A. S. r^es^ew, desert; Lat.-yas^ws, 
waste, desolate), vast, desolate. "The proper meaning of waste is empty." 
Wedgwood. — 962. Sable-vested Night, like the yueAo/u-ireTrAos Nu|, black- 
robed Night, of Euripides, Ion, 1150 ; so sable-vested Death, Ale. 844. — 964. 
Orcus and Ades. " Milton seems to mean the Death and Hell of the Apocalypse, 
XX. 13." Keightley. " Orcus is properly the God of death." A lien and Green- 
ough on Vir. ^n. II. 398. " From etpyw, eirgo, ^pyw, ergo (to shut in or out), 
and so, properly, that which restrains men from doing ; lience Lat. Orcus, ' the 
bourne from which no traveller returns.' " Liddell and Scott. Original of our 
ogre! Ades (Gr. a privative ; iZf7v, to see ; hence Aides, or Ades, or later, 
Hades), the god of the unseen nether world, Pluto. — 964-5. Dreaded name 
of Demogorgon. *' The expression cannot be justilied by rules of reason, but 



104 PARADISE LOST. 

And Tumult, and Confusion, all embroiled, 
And Discord Avith a thousand various mouths. 

To whom Satan, turning boldly, thus : " Ye powers 
And spirits of this nethermost abyss, 
Chaos and ancient Night, I come no spy 970 

With purpose to explore or to disturb 
The secrets of your realm ; but, by constraint 
Wandering this darksome desert, as my way 
Lies through your spacious empire up to light, 
Alone and without guide, half lost, I seek 975 

What readiest path leads where your gloomy bounds 
Confine with heaven : or, if some other place, 
From your dominion won, the ethereal king 
Possesses lately, thither to arrive 

I travel this profound. Direct my course. 980 

Directed, no mean recompense it brings 
To your behoof, if I that region lost. 
All usurpation thence expelled, reduce 
To her original darkness and your sway, 
(Which is my present journey,) and once more 985 

Erect the standard there of ancient Night. 
Yours be the advantage all, mine the revenge ! " 

it is nevertheless as magnificent as words can make it." Moir. This mysterious 
and terrible being, whose name no one dared to pronounce till Lactantius 
littered it in the fourth century, is supposed to be the one whom Lucan's witch 
Erictho threatened to call against the infernal powers, • a being at whose name 
the earth always trembled.' Lucan, Pharsalia VI. 744. See Shelley's Prome- 
theus Unbound^ Act II. sc. iv. So Spenser F. Q.,\.i. 37. This use of the 
word name is classic, and Shakes, makes Caesar say, ' If my name were liable 
to fear.' Jul. Cms. I, 2. Rumor. Virgil's Famal JEii. IV. 173-189. 
Shakes, quaintly personifies Rumor. Induction, 2 Henry IV. — 967. Discord 
{JEn. VI. 280). — 972. Secrets. Used like Lat. secreta = secret places ? 
.Mn. VI. 10 ; Geor. IV. 403. — 977. Confine = have a common boundary? 
Con, together ; finis, boundary. Or, if, etc. Note the adroitness of Satan in 
the next ten lines. " As this new universe is a space seized and subtracted 
from the ancient dominion of Chaos .... Satan naturally api^eals to the 
resentment of the powers of Chaos, and promises, etc. Masson. — 984-5. Her. 
Why not 1^5? I. 254. Which is my present journey. Syntax?— 988. Anarch. 



PARADISE LOST. 105 

Thus Satan ; and him thus the anarch old, 
With faltering speech and visage inconiposed, 
Answered : " I know thee, stranger, who thou art, 990 
That mighty leading angel, who of late 
IMade head against heaven's king, though overthrown. 
I saw and heard ; for such a numerous host 
Fled not in silence through the frighted deep, 
With ruin upon ruin, rout on rout, 995 

Confusion worse confounded ; and heaven gates 
Poured out by millions her victorious bands 
Pursuing. I upon my frontiers here 
Keep residence ; if all I can will serve 
That little which is left so to defend, 1000 

Encroached on still through our intestine broils, 
Weakening the sceptre of old Night : first, hell, 
Your dungeon, stretching far and wide beneath ; 
Now lately Heaven and Earth, another world. 

Word coined- by Milton? —989. Faltering .... incomposed. Why so 
represented ? — 990. I know thee, etc. A Greek idiom. See Luke iv. 34. 
Why does not Chaos call him by name ? — 997. Poured out by millions. 
So old Chaos thought ; but his intellect was naturally or unnaturally muddled, 
and he liad been too much frightened (he was easily frightened, as in I. 
543 ?) to know the facts. Perhaps Satan (I. 170) and Moloch (II. 78, 79) 
thought so too. But they all mistook thunderbolts, etc., for victorious 
angels ? The Messiah vanquished single-handed the rebel host. VI. 880-2. — 
998. Frontiers. Prof. Himes remarks that as ' the darkest time of night 
is just before day,' so the pavilion of Chaos is on the frontiers. See his 
diagram, Introduction, p. xix. — 999. Can do, will serve. " Satan has 
judged rightly. The old Anarch is in a state of resentment." Masson. — 
1001. Our. Keightley and nearly all the commentators follow Dr. Pearce, 
who in 1732 substituted your for our. Masson restores our, ' a form of 
speech,' he says, ' which implicated all existing beings.' ' Your ' might have 
seemed impolite ? It is just possible that the timid monarch means that his 
dominion would not be so encroached upon if its intestine broils did not 
exist? — 1004. Heaven and Earth constituting another world. — 1005. 
Golden chain. Allegorical ? Love ? Providence ? ' the great cJiain of eternal 
order,' of which Burke makes mention? 'the chain of being'? What did 
Milton know of the law of gravitation ? Compare, " Thy chains the \\\\- 
measured universe surround," in Bowring's translation of Derzhavin's Ode to 
the Deity ; also in Thomson's Seasons {Sumnier), — 



106 PARADISE LOST. 

Hung o'er my realm, linked in a golden chain 1005 

To that side heaven from whence your legions fell ! 
If that way be your walk, you have not far ; 
So much the nearer danger. Go, and speed ! 
Havoc and spoil and ruin are my gain." 

He ceased ; and Satan stayed not to reply, loio 

But, glad that now his sea should find a shore, 
With fresh alacrity and force renewed 
Springs upward, like a pyramid of fire, 
Into the wild expanse, and through the shock 
Of fighting elements, on all sides round 1015 

Environed, wins his way ; harder beset 
And more endangered than when Argo passed 
Through Bosporus betwixt the justling rocks, 
Or when Ulysses on the larboard shunned 
Charybdis, and by the other whirlpool steered. 1020 

So he with difficulty and labor hard 
Moved on ; with difficulty and labor he ; 
But, he once passed, soon after, when man fell, 
Strange alteration ! Sin and Death amain, 

" 'Tis by thy secret strong attractive force, 
As with a chain indissoluble bound, 
Thy system rolls entire," 

The commentators cite Iliad, VIII. 19, where Jupiter boasts that he could 
draw up earth, ocean, etc., with a golden chain, etc. ; but there is no resem- 
blance between the two passages. — 1013. Like a pyramid of fire. *A 
magnificent simile, suggesting the dwindling radiance of the angel's bulk as it 
shoots rapidly upward from the sight.' Masson. — 1017-18. Argo passed 
. . . betwixt. "A slight slip of memory, for it was after emerging that the 
Argo had to pass througli the Symplegades. " Kcightley. But the rocks 
were only four or five miles from the Bosporus, and they were wandering 
rocks. Furthermore, Herodotus, Polybius, and Appian make the Bosporus 
extend from these rocks 120 stadia to Byzantium, a fact that seems to have 
slipped from the commentator's memory ! Argo. The famous ship in wliich 
Jason and his associates went after the golden fleece. See Class. Did. — 
1019. Ulysses being on the larboard. — 1020. Other whirlpool. Scylla. 
See Class. Diet. Ovid {Met. XIV. 51) calls this water parvus (/urges, small 
whirlpool ; and Virgil {^^n. III. 425) represents it as ' drawing sliips upon the 
rocks.' — 1021-22. These lines illustrate that echoing of sense by sound which 



PARADISE LOST. 107 

Following his track, such was the will of Heaven, 1025 
Paved after him a broad and beaten way- 
Over the dark abyss, whose boiling gulf 
Tamely endured a bridge of wondrous length, 
From hell continued, reaching the utmost orb 
Of this frail world ; by which the spirits perverse 1030 
With easy intercourse pass to and fro 
To tempt or punish mortals, except whom 
God and good angels guard by special grace. 

But now at last the sacred influence 
Of light appears, and from the walls of heaven 1035 

Shoots far into the bosom of dim Night 
A glimmering dawn. Here Nature first begins 
Her farthest verge, and Chaos to retire. 
As from her outmost works, a broken foe, 
With tumult less and with less hostile din ; 1040 

That Satan with less toil, and now with ease, 

Pope praises, "The line, too, labors, and the words move slow." — 1024. 
Amain. See 1.165.— 1028. Bridge. This is described X. 293 to 320. "Mil- 
ton tells in magnificent verse the making of the causeway. Nothing can be 
greater than the image of these two ghastly forms (Sin and Death) ranging 
Chaos, and beating into a shoal the solid and the dry, bound with Death's 
petrific mace into fastness, wrought into a mole immense." Stopford A. 
Brooke. — 1029. Orb. This is not the earth, but the outer hollow sphere 
inclosing our Universe. See diagram at the end of this book.* The Arabic 
Al Sirat (i. e. the path) stretches over hell and is narrower than the edge of 
a sword ; yet on this bridge is the road to the Mohammedan paradise ! — 1033- 
34. God and good angels. Same phrase in Herrick's Noble Numbers, p. 74, 
*'God and good angels guide thee"; and in Shakes. Richard IIT., V. iii., 
"God and good angels fight on Richmond's side." Sacred. Why? See the 
beginning of Book III. Influence. Etymological meaning ? astrological ? — 
1036. Shoots far. This reminds us of the titles applied to the sun-god Apollo, 
whom, in some respects, Satan much resembles, ' the far-darter,' ' the shooter,' 

* The * orbs ' or * spheres ' were conceived to be concentric, and ten in number ; the 
outer one opaque ; the ninth, a crystalline ocean lining the tenth, like the inside of a 
pearly shell ; the other eight transparent. The heayenly bodies were supposed to be fixed 
in their respective spheres and to revolve with them. The earth being in the centre, the 
nearest sphere was that in which the moon was fastened ; the next was that of the planet 
Mercury ; the third, that of Venus ; fourth, the Sun ; fifth Mars ; sixth, .Jupiter ; seventh, 
Saturn; eighth, the fixed stars; ninth, the crystalline sphere; tenth, the primum 
mobile., the outer shell, or ' utmost orb of this frail world." 



108 PARADISE LOST, 

Wafts on the calmer wave by dubious light, 

And, like a weather-beaten vessel, holds 

Gladly the port, though shrouds and tackle torn ; 

Or in the emptier waste, resembling air, 1045 

Weighs his spread wings, at leisure to behold 

Far off the empyreal heaven, extended wide 

In circuit, undetermined square or round. 

With opal towers and battlements adorned 

Of living sapphire, once his native seat ; 1050 

And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, 

This pendent world, in bigness as a star 

Of smallest magnitude close by the moon. 

Thither, full fraught with mischievous revenge. 

Accursed, and in a cursed hour he hies. 1055 



etc. See III. 586. — 1037. Nature, creation, our world, cosmos as opposed to 
chaos ? — 1042-43. Wafts himself ? Holds the port. Lat. tenet portinn, as 
in Virgil, J^n. 1.400. — 1046-47. Weighs, poises ? See 1. 905. Empyreal. 
I. 117. — 1048. Undetermined etc. " From the portion tliat was seen, the 
eye could not determine whether its margin was straight or curved." Keight- 
ley. Explanation suflScient ?— 1049. Opal towers and battlements. Prof. 
Himes suggests that the * crystal Avail ' of heaven is simply the horizon wall. 
The idea is strikingly beautiful. If it is correct, then perhaps, like the Latin 
arces, the * opal towers and battlements ' may be mountain-peaks in that hori- 
zon, dipped in the colors of heaven. Angelic art and skill may have added to 
their beauty and grandeur. See I. 733, 749 ; IV. 542-8 ; V. 758-9. Coinciding 
with the horizon line may be precipices like the chalk cliffs of Albion, and at 
their base the ocean surges of Chaos may beat. See VII. 210 to 215 ; also the 
Preface. — 1051. Golden chain. See 1005. —1052. This pendent world. 
Shakespeare's phrase in Measure for Measure, III. i. 126. World. Not our 
earth, as so many commentators have thought, but our universe of stars, all 
seeming like a single shining point ! — 1053. Smallest. Is it the true relative 
size, or only the apparent, the optical effect, that is here sought to be indi- 
cated ? Reason for your opinion ? 



END OF BOOK II. 



INDEX. 



Abarim, 38. 

abject, 33. 

abolished, 63. 

abomination, 36. 

above (in stature), 47. 

abyss, 10, 51, 76, 81, 103. 

Accaron, 40. 

access, 65. 

Acheron, 85. 

adamant, 78. 

adamantine, 13, 89. 

Addison, 39. 

Ades, 103. 

admired, 92. 

Adonis, 40. 

Adria, 43. 

advanced, 44. 

advise, 75. 

yEgsean, 55. 

vEtna, 28. 

afflicted, 25. 

afflicting, 66. 

affront, 36. 

Alcairo, 54. 

alchemy, 81. 

Alcides. 83. 

all but, 30. 

alp, 87. 

Alsatia, 73. 

Al Sirat, 107. 

altars, of devils, 36. 

amain, 66, 107. 

amazement, 33. 

amerced, 49. 

ammiral, 32. 

Ammonite, 37, 38. 

Araram's son, 34. 

and (= especially), 31. 

angel's ken, 15. 

anon, 33, 53. 

Aonian, 8. 

apathy, 84. 

apostate, 20. 

arbitrator, 74. 

arbitress, 57. 

archangel, 48. 

architect, 54. 

architrave, 54. 

Aroer, 38. 

Argo, 106. 

Argob. 37. 



argues, 69. 

argument, 5, 10. 

Arimaspian, 102. 

ark, 40. 

Armoric, 47. 

armed, Orion, 32. 

arms, 44. 

Arnon, 37. 

arrive, 76. 

artillery, 94. 

artist, 31. 

Ascalon, 40. 

Aschara, 1. 

as from a sky, 54. 

Ashtaroth,39. 

aspect, 72. 

Asphaltic pool, 38. 

asphaltus, 54. 

aspiring (end of line), 12. 

Aspramont, 47. 

astonished, 30. 

astoni.shment, 33. 

Astoreth, 39. 

astounded, 31. 

astrology, 93. 

Atlantean, 72. 

attempted, 74. 

attention, 49. 

audacious, 102. 

aught else, 52. 

aurora borealis, 82. 

Ausonian, 55. 

awakening (of the devils), 

33, 34. 
Azazel, 44. 
Azotus, 40. 
Azure, 32. 

B. 

Baalim, 39. 
Babel, 52. 
baleful, 14. 
bane, 52, 96. 
baptized, 47. 
barbaric, 59. 
Barca, 101. 
Basan, 37. 
battle, 13. 
beatific, 52. 
Beelzebub, 18, 72. 
bees, .56. 
beest, 18. 



behoves, 102. 

Belial, 42, 64. 

belike, 66. 

Bellona, 101. 

bend (ranks), 49. 

Bengala, 89. 

beneath (= in lower lati- 
tude), 35. 

Bentley, 83. 

besides, 25. 

Besor, 38. 

bestial, 39. 

better hid, treasures, 52, 

beyond compare, 47. 

Biserta, 47. 

black fire, 62. 

blasted heath, 49. 

blissful seat, 6. 

bogs, 86, 87. 

bordering flood, 38. 

bossy, 54. 

bottomless, 13. 

bowed down, 39. 

breath (of the Lord), 66. 

breathed, 45. 

breathes (exhales), 70. 

breathing united force, 46. 

Briareos, 26. 

bridge, 107. 

brigade, 51. 

brightening, 76. 

brightness, 18. 

brimstone, 34. 

brooding, 10. 

broolv that parts Egypt, 
etc., 38. 

Brooke, Stopford A. {see 
Preface), 107. 

broomsticks, 91. 

Brutus, 83. 

bullion, 53. 

Burke, 87. 

Busiris, 32. 

buxom, 97. 

C. 

cadence, 71. 

Caedmon, quoted in Intro- 
duction. 
CEPSura, 2, 6. 
Calabria, 90. 
camp (=army), 52. 



110 



INDEX. 



Candia, 43. 

career, 56. 

Casius, 86. 

Caspian, 94. 

celebrate, 69, 70. 

cells, 53. 

Celtic, 44. 

centre, 17,(— the earth), 52. 

Cerberean, 90. 

chain, 105, 108. 

chained, 27. 

chaos (sec Preface), 100, 105. 

chance, 69, 80, 103. 

change for, 29. 

Charlemagne, 47. 

Chenios, 38. 

cherub, 23, 44. 

cherubim, 36. 

cliimeras, 88. 

chivalry, 33. 

chosen seed, 8. 

circumference, 31. 

clarions, 44. 

clashed, 51. 

close ( = grapple), 83. 

close sailing, 89. 

Cocytus, 85. 

Coleridge, 91. 

combustion, 13. 

comet, 9.3. 

compare (noun), 47. 

compeer, 21. 

compose, 71. 

conceiving fire, 28. 

conclave, 57. 

conduct, 21. 

confer, 56. 

confine, 104. 

confounded, 14. 

conjecture, 65. 

conjured, 92. 

conscious, 96. 

considerate, 48. 

consistence, 102. 

consult (noun), 57. 

contrary, 23. 

converse, 67. 

convex, 78. 

cope, 34. 

cornice, 54. 

cosmography (see Preface 

and Introduction), 107. 
couch (verb), 83. 
covered field, 56. 
Cowper, 7. 
creation, 74. 
cressets, 54. 
Crete, 43. 
crew, 14, 52. 
Cronos, 43. 
cruel, 48. 
Cyrene, 101. 



D. 



Dagon, 40. 
D.iniiata, 8( 
Dnnaw, 35. 
Dante, 6. 



Dante's Inferno. See In- 
troduction, Prof. Himes 
quoted. 

darkened all the land, 34. 

darkness (in heaven), 70. 

darkness, visible, 15. 

deep, 22, 65. 

deform, 93. 

Delphian, 43. 

Demogorgon, 103, 104. 

demur, 77. 

denounced, 64. 

De Quincey, 6, 9, 10. 

derides, 68. 

despaired, 51. 

determined, 73, 

devils, adored as deities, 36. 

diction. See Preface. 

dint, 96. 

dire hail, 86. 

disastrous, 48. 

discord, 104. 

discover, 54. 

Dodona, 43. 

doing or suffering, 23. 

dolorous, 87. 

Dorian mood, 45. 

Doric, 43, 54. 

Doric land, 43. 

double-formed, 95. 

doubt (= hesitation), 63. 

dovelike, 10. 

drench, 62. 

Dryden, 3. 

dungeon, 15, 73. 

durst, 14. 

dwarfs, 46. 

E. 

Eden, 6. 

edge, 31. 

Eleale, 38. 

element, 80. 

eloquence, 84. 

elves, 57. 

embattled, 21. 

emblazed, 44. 

emblazonry, 81. 

embryon, 100. 

emperor, .36. 

empire, 20. 

emptied, 50. 

empyreal, 20, 108. 

empyrean {sck Preface and 

Introduction), 90. 
endless (^ endlessly), 66. 
engine, 55, 62. 
enow, 81. 
entertain, 82. 
entire, 51. 
envy, 11, 30. 
equal, 32. 
Erebus, 99. 
erewhile, 31. 
erst, 35. 
erui)tion, 51. 
essences, 21. 
essential, 63. 



ethereal, 86. 
Ethiopian, 89. 
Etna, 28. 
Euboic, 83. 
Euphrates, 38. 
event, 21. 
exercise, 63. 
exhalation, 53. 
expatiate, 56. 
explained, 81. 
extinct, 22. 
Ezekiel, 40. 



fables, 26. 
fact of arms, 65. 
faery, 57. 
fail, 23. 
falconry, 34. 

fallen (^ fallen from), 31. 
fame, 50. 
fares, 102. 
farthest, 29. 
fast by, 8, 108. 
fatal, 64. 
fate, 20, 84, 87. 
fell (Cliailemagne)i 47. 
fell from heaven, 55. 
Fesole, 31. 
field, covered, 56. 
fiery steeds, 82. 
files, 46. 
fire, 37. 

fled (Saturn fled), 43. 
folds, 54. 

for (= on account of), 33. 
force, 19, 30. 
force, of force, 22. 
forgetful lake, 62. 
forlorn, 25. 
founded, 53. 
foundered (night-foun- 
dered). 26, 102. 
frame of heaven, 101. 
fraught, 94. 
frequent and full, 57. 
fretted, 54. 
frith, 101. 
front, 46. 
fronted, 82. 
frontiers, 105. 
frore, 86. 

frozen continent, 85. 
fuelled, 28. 
furies, 86. 
furnace, 15. 



gave to rule, 55. 
Gehenna, 37. 
globe, 81. 
gloomy deep, 22. 
glorious, 19. 
glory, 12, 20, 22. 
goblin, 92. 
gold (streets), 52. 
golden chain, 106, 




INDEX. 



Ill 



gorgeous East, 59. 

Goshen , 33. 

Goths, 2. 

gradual (deterioration), 47, 

48. 
grand, 11, 20, 
gi-inned, 98. 
gross, 84, 85. 
grove, 38. 
grunsel, 38. 
gryphon, 102. 

H. 

hangs in the clouds, 88. 

haralds, 55, 81. 

harbor, 25. 

hatching, 75. 
, heath, 49. 

I heaven. See Preface, Intro- 
I duction, 51, 72. 

heaven and earth, 105. 
, heU, Preface, Introduction, 
5, 16. 

hell gates. Introduction, 89. 

hendecasyllcibic, line 12. 

Herodotus, 102, 103. 
, Hesebon, 38. 

Hesperian, 43, 44. 
' highth, 10. 
I hill, opprobrious, 37, 38. 

Himes, Introduction, 7, 54, 
85, 91, 92. 
, his (= its), 24, 46, 51. 
' Horeb, 7. 
! Horonaitn, 38. 
j horrid, 46. 

host of heaven, 50. 

hotness, 29. 

hubbub, 103. 

hugest, 26. 

humane, 64. 

Huns, 2. 

hurled, 13. 

hydras, 88. 



Ida, 43. 
idols, 36, 40. 
ignoble ease, 69. 
ignominy, 20. 
Ilium, 47. 
illimitable, 100. 
illumined, 51. 
imi)aled, 89. 
impious, 52. 
impotence, 66. 
incensed, 93. 
Ind, 59. 

Indian mount, 57. 
infinitive perfect, 12. 
inflame, 85. 
influence, 107. 
innumerable, hands, 53. 
instinct, 102. 
intend, 79. 
interwove, 49. 
intrenched, 48. 



in troop, 39. 
invests, 27. 
invisible glory, 35. 
invocation, 5, 6. 
involved, with, 28. 
ire, 22. 
isle, 76. 
its, 30, 104. 



J. 



Josiah, 38. 
jousted, 47. 



Keightley, 3, 7, 32, 
43, 51, 93, 99, 108. 
ken, 15. 

kingly crown, 91. 
knights, 47. 
know repulse, 50. 



laboring, 91. 

labyrinth, 85. 

lake of fire, Introduction 

Landor, 6, 7. 

large, large heart, 40. 

laughs, 94. 

Lear, 67. 

led by fraud, 37. 

lee, 27. 

Lemnos, 55. 

Lethe, Introduction, 85. 

leviathan, 26. 

levy, 80, 101. 

Libyan, 35. 

Lichas, 83. 

linked, 33. 

Living Strength, 39. 

lore, 97. 

lost, hath lost us heaven, 

21. 
Lowell, Introduction. 
Lowell (on witches), 90, 91. 
louring, 80. 
Lucretius, 6. 
lust hard by hate, 38. 

M. 

Mammon, 52. 

manna, 64. 

mansion, 31, 79. 

marie, 32. 

Marvell, Andrew, 3. 

Masson, 54. See Introduc- 
tion. 

maw, 98. 

measure, 1. 

medusa, 87. 

Memphian, 33. 

Memphian kings, 52. 

Messiah. See Introduction, 
62, 92. 

meteor, 44. 

Michael, 71, 72. 

middle air, 43. 



middle flight, 8. 
military terms, 51. 
ministers, 23 
Moab, 37. 
Moabites, 37. 38. 
Moloch. 36, 37, 61. 
monosyllables in English 

language, 103. 
Montalban, 47. 
moon, drawn nearer earth, 

57. 
moral of the poem, 10. 
Morocco, 47. 
mortal, 6, 56. 
mother of mankind, 12. 
mould, 65, 74. 
mountain, offensive, 40. 
moveil (in review), 46. 
Mt. of Olives, 37, 40. 
Mulciber, Introduction, 54, 

55. 
muse, 6. 
muster, 46. 
mustering, 70, 71. 
mutual, IS. 

N. 

names blotted out, 35. 

naphtha, 54. 

nathless, 32. 

nature, 100, 108. 

Nebo, 38. 

negatives, two; equivalent, 

34. 
neighborhood, 37. 
neither, 79. 
nether, 72. 
nethermost, 103. 
new names of devils, 35. 
night, 103. 
nigbt-foundered, 26. 
night-hag, 90. 
nightly, 89. 
ninefold, 78. 
nine times, 14. 
noontide, 72. 
nor . . . not, 34. 
northern hive, 35. 
north wind sleeps, 80. 



obdurate, 15. 
obdured, 84. 
oblivious, 31. 
obscure, 65. 
obscure (noun), 76. 
observed, 47- 
ocean-stream, 26. 
Ocean u.s, 43. 
CEchalia, 83. 
o'erblown, 24. 
(Eta, 83. 
offend, 25. 

offensive mountain, 40. 
of force, 22. 
Olympus, 43. 
onomatopoeia, 99. 



112 



INDEX. 



opal, 108. 

opinion, 79. 

Opliiuchus, 92. 

opprobrious hill, 37. 

oracle, 8. 

orb, 107. 

Orcus, 103. 

ordered, spears, 46. 

Orel), 7 

orgies, 38. 

orient, 45, 76. 

original, 75. 

origin of evil, 5. 

Orion, 32. 

Ormus, 59. 

other parts besides, 25. 



pale, 25. 

Palestine, 18. 

palpable obscure, 76. 

Pandemonium, Introduc- 
tion, 53, 56. 

Panini, 56. 

Pantheon, Introduction, 56. 

paramount, 81. 

l)assed through fire, 37. 

passion, 48. 

pealed, 101. 

peers, 12. 

Pelorus, 28. 

pendent, 54, 108. 

pennons, 102. 

Peor, 38. 

pernicious, 31. 

perpetual, 21. 

phalanx, 45. 

Pharaoh, 32. 

Phlegeton, Introduction, 
85. 

Phoenicians, 39. 

jiilasters, 54. 

pilate, 26. 

])illar, 72. 

pine, 32. 

pinnace, 71. 

pioneers, 52. 

pitchy, 34, 96. 

Plntus, 52. 

ply, 89. 

pole, 17. 

pool, 27. 

populous north, 34. 

portcullis, 99. 

portion, 16. 

position of noun between 
ac^jeetives, 80. 

potentates, 33. 

potent rod, 34. 

powers, 25. 

powers enthroned, 21, 60. 

precedence, 60. 

pretences, 97. 

prevented, 79. 

prick forth, 83. 

princes, 33. 

process, 72. 

prodigious, 88. 



Prometheus, 70. 
prone, 79. 
proud, 13. 

punished (impersonal), 
puny, 74. 
purlieus, 97. 
pursuers, 23, 24. 
pursues, 9. 
put to proof, 21. 
pygmean, 57. 
pygmies, 46. 
pyramid of fire, 106. 
Pythian helds, 82. 

R. 

Rabba, 37. 
racking, 67. 
ranged, 81. 
reason, 30. 
rebuff, 102. 
recess, 57. 
recked, 61. 
recollecting, 44. 
recorders, 45. 
redounding, 100. 
red right hand, 67. 
reduced, 57. 
regiment, 56. 
reinforcement, 25. 
religions, 36. 
remains, 21. 
remoi'se, 48. 
repulse, 50. 
resounds, 47. 
rest, 25. 
revenge, 11. 
Rhea,, 43. 
Rhene, 35. 
rhime, 9. 

ride the air, 83, 90. 
rife, 50. 

rime (rhyme), 3. 
rites, 36. 

roaming for prey, 36. 
robe, envenomed, 83. 
rod, 34. 
rood, 26. 
root, 75. 

rose out of chaos, 8. 
rout, 55. 
ruin, 13. 
ruinous, 101. 
Rumor, 104. 
Ruskin, 28, 29. 



sable-vested, 103. 

Satan, Introduction, 5, etc. 

satiate, 24. 

Saturn, 43. 

save, 96, 97. 

scaly, 27. 

scar, 76. 

scathed, 49. 

sceptred, 61. 

scours, 88. 

scout, 05. 



Scylla, 90, 106. 

seat, 6. 

secret, 7. 

secrets, 104. 

secret top, 7. 

sedge, 32. 

sees, or thinks he sees, 57. 

sensible ( = sensibility), 71. 

sentence, 61, 71. 

senteries, 76. 

Seon's lealm, 38. 

seraphim, 21. 

Serapis, 54. 

Serbonian bog, 86. 

serpent, 5, 11. 

serried, 45. 

sex of spirits, 39. 

Shakespeare, 1, etc. 

shall (= will), 76. 

share, 31. 

shaves, 88. 

sheer, 55. 

shepherd, Moses, 7. 

showers pearl, 59. 

Sibyl, Introduction. 

signal of outstretched 

spear, 34. 
Siloa's brook, 8. 
since created man, 46. 
Sinai, 7. 
Sion, 8. 
Sittim, 38. 
situation, 15. 
skiff, 27. 
slip, 24. 
sluiced, 53. 
small infantry, 46. 
snowy top, 43. 
sojourners, 33. 
Soldan's, 56. 
sophists, 64» 
sound, 86. 
sound-board, 53. 
Sovran, 29, 55. 
space, 14, 50. 
spares ( = forbears), 95. 
sparkling, 25. 
speeches of Satan, 33, 49, 

77, etc. 
speedy words, 22. 
spires, 27. 
Spirit, 9. 

spirits of heaven, 92. 
spurns, 102. 
squadron, 35, 84. 
squared, 56. 
-st (termination), 94. 
starve, 86. 
state, 50. 

stately highth, 54. 
States, 75. 
stations, 77. 
stemming, 89. 
sting, 90. 
Storr, 7. 
straitened, 56. 
strange fire, 62. 
Strength, Living, 39. 
strew, 32. 



INDEX, 



113 



study, 19. 

Stygian, 29, 99. 

style, Preface, also Intro- 

diictioQ 
Styx, Introduction, 85. 
sublime, 82. 
sublimed, 28. 
substance, empyreal, 20. 
success, 59, 65. 
suffer, 68. 
sufferance, 29. 
suffice, 22. 
sulphur, 16, 51. 
supi)liant, 20. 
supreme, 68. 
swarmed, gates, etc., 56. 
sword of Michael, 71. 
synod, 75. 



Tantalus, 87. 

Tartarean, 62. 

Tartarus, Introduction, 17. 

Tasso, 6. 

Taurus, 56. 

temper, 31. 

temple on Mount Moriah, 
Introduction, 8. 

tempted our attempt, 50. 

tend, 25. 

Ternate, 89. 

Thammuz, or Tammuz, 40. 

than (as preposition), 72. 

Thebes, 47. 

thence, 18. 

Theognis, 69. 

thralls, 22. 

thrice (three a sacred num- 
ber), 49. 

throne, 36. 
1 throned powers, 21. 

thunder, 19, 24, 30, 60, 62. 
' thunderer, 60. 
I thundering, 28. 

Tidore, 89. 

Titan, 43. 
I Titanian, 26. 



to (after obey), 34. 

to have equalled, 12. 

took (= captivated), 84. 

torments (verb, accent), 14. 

ton'ent, 85. 

tortures, 62. 

torturing hour, 63. 

traverse (adverb), 46. 

Trebisond, 47. 

Trinacria, 90. 

triple, 84. 

triumphs, 20. 

troop, 39. 

troubled sky, 83. 

turns, the wards, 99. 

Tuscan, 31. 

Typhoean, 83. 

Typhon, 26. 

tyranny, 20. 

U. 

Ulysses, 106. 

un- (as prefix repeated), 67. 
unattempted things, 9. 
unblest feet, 28. 
unconsumed, 90. 
uncouth, 76. 

understood (= secret), 51. 
undetermined, 108. 
unessential, 78. 
unfounded, 97. 
unmoved, 77. 
unrespited, 67. 
uplift, 25. 
upright wing, 62. 
Urania, 6. 
urges, 16. 
Uther's son, 47. 
utmost isles, 44. 
utmost pole, 17. 
utter, 16, 63. 
utter darkness, 16. 



vans, 102. 

vain empires, 75. 



Valdarno, 31. 
Vallombrosa, 32. 
vapor, 69. 
various (= variously 

wrought), 53. 
vassalage, 70. 
vassals, 63. 
vast, 24. 

verse. Introduction, 1. 
Virgil, Introduction, 106, 

virtue, 33, 60, 80. 
vision beatific, 52. 
void profound, 78. 

W. 

wafts, 108. 

wandering, 84. 

want, 73. 

warping, 34. 

wast present, 10. 

waste and wild, 15. 

wasteful, 103. 

weak, is miserable, 23. 

weighs, 108. 

weight, felt unusual weight, 

28 
welkin, 83. 
weltering, 17. 
what (= why), 63. 
what time (— when), 12. 
whirlpool, 106. 
wild, 25. 
wind, 28. 

winged with speed, 51. 
wisest heart, 37. 
wished ( = wished for), 27. 
within, 54. 
witnessed, 14. 
woe, 38. 
womb, 51. 
woman, 90. 
wont, 56. 
world (universe), Preface, 

Introduction, 108. 
Wordsworth, Introduction, 
worst, at worst, 64. 



MILTON'S 



L Y C I D A S. 



EDITED, WITH NOTES, 



HOMEK B. SPEAGUE, Ph.D., 

HEAD MASTER OF THE GIRLS* HIGH SCHOOL, BOSTON, MASS., AND FORMEKLT 

PROFESSOR OF RHETORIC AND ENGLISH LITERATURE IN 

THE CORNELL XTNIVERSITT. 



BOSTON: 

GINN AND HEATH, PUBLISHERS, 

1879. 



t 



Copyright, 1878. 
By GINN and HEATH. 



PREFACE 



This edition of Lycidas is designed especially for school 
I use. The Editor has endeavored to avoid the extremes of 

too copious notes on the one hand, which relieve the stu- 
; , dent from all necessity of original thought and investiga- 
I tionj and too meagre notes on the other, which leave the 

student unaware of the rich treasures that are hid from 
( him who does not go below the surface. The text is 
I Masson'sj but the spelling has been more consistently mod- 
I ^ ernized, wherever neither the sound nor the meaniusj of the 

V 

I word would be affected by such change. The Editor will 
be thankful for corrections and suggestions. 

Girls' High School, 

Boston, Sept. 1, 1878. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

I. Comments by Morley on the Poem ... v 

II. Comments by R. C. Browne vii 

III. Chronology of Incidents, etc ix 

IV. Various Readings xii 

V. Text of Lycidas, with Notes 5 

VI. Index of Words explained 37 



INTRODUCTION, 



[From Morley's A First Sketch of English Literature.'] 

.... "Milton was preparing to add to his course of education two 
years or more of travel in Italy and Greece. As a poet he did not count 
himself to have attained, but still pressed forward. In a letter to his 
friend, Charles Diodati, he had written, on the 23d of September : 'As 
to other points, what God may have determined for me, I know not ; but 
this I know, that if he ever instilled an intense love of moral beauty 
into the breast of any man, he has instilled it into mine. Ceres, in the 
fable, pursued not her daughter with a greater keenness of inquiry than 
I, day and night, the idea of perfection. Hence, whenever I find a man 
despising the false estimates of the vulgar, and daring to aspire, in sen- 
timent, language, and conduct, to what the highest wisdom through 
every age has taught us as most excellent, to him I unite myself by a 
kind of necessary attachment ; and if I am so influenced by nature or des- 
tiny, that by no exertion or labors of my own I may exalt myself to this 
summit of worth and honor, yet no powers of heaven or earth will hinder 
me from looking with reverence and affection upon those who have thor- 
oughly attained this glory, or appear engaged in the successful pursuit 
of it. You inquire with a kind of solicitude even into my thoughts. 
Hear, then, Diodati, — but let me whisper in your ear, that I may not 
blush at my reply, — I think (so help me Heaven !) of immortality. You 
inquire also what I am about ? I nurse my wings, and meditate a flight ; 
but my Pegasus rises as yet on very tender pinions. Let us be humbly 
wise. ' 

" The opening lines of Milton's ii/ac^s repeat this modest estimate of 
his achievement. In Camus Milton had produced one of the master- 
pieces of our literature, but he felt only that the laurels he was born to 
gather were not yet ripe for his hand, and that when the death of Edward 
King called from him verse again, and love forced him to write, his 
hand could grasp but roughly at the bough not ready for his plucking. 

{Here Morley quotes the first ten lines of Lycidas. ] 
'* The pastoral name of Lycidas was chosen to signify purity of charac- 
ter. In Theocritus a goat was so called (XevKiras) for its whiteness. Like 



vi inthojDuction. 

Spenser, Milton looked upon the pastoral form as the most fit for a muse 
in its training time. Under the veil of pastoral allegory, therefore, he 
told the tale of the shipwreck ; but in two places his verse rose as into 
bold hills above the level of the plain, when thoughts of a higher strain 
were to be uttered. The first rise (lines 64 to 84) was to meet the 
doubt that would come when a young man with a pure soul and higli 
aspiration labored with self-denial throughout youth and early manhood 
to prepare himself for a true life in the world, and then at the close of 
the long preparation died. If this the end, why should the youth 
aspire ? 

* "Were it not better done, as others use, 
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade. 
Or with the tangles of Keaera's hair ? ' 

(As in Virgil, Eel. VIII. 11. 77, 78; and Horace, Od. III. xiv. 11. 
21-24.) 

" But, Milton replied, our aspiration is not bounded by this life : — 

* Fame is no plant that grows on mortal soil, 

Nor in the glistering foil 

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies ; 

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes 
■And perfect witness of all-judging Jove : 

As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 

Of so much fame, in heaven expect thy meed.' 

"From that height of thought Milton skilfully descended again : — 

' fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 
Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds ! 
That strain I heard was of a higher mood ; 
But now my oat proceeds,' etc. 

And we are again upon the flowery plain of the true pastoral, till, pres- 
ently, there is another sudden rise of thought (11. 108-131). The dead 
youth was destined for the Church, of which he would have been a pure, 
devoted servant. He is gone, and the voice of St. Peter, typical head of 
the Church, speaks sternly of the many who remain, — false pastors who 
care only to shear their flocks, to scramble for church livings, and shove 
away those whom God has called to be his ministers. Ignorant of the 
duties of their sacred office, what care they ? They have secured their 
incomes ; and preach, when they please, their unsubstantial showy ser- 
mons, in which they are as shepherds piping not from sound reeds, but 

from little shrunken straws The congregations, hungry for the 

word of God, look up to the pulpits of these men with blind mouths, and 



I 



LYGIDAS. 



are not fed. Swollen with windy doctrine, and the rank mist of words 
without instruction, they rot in their souls and spread contagion, besides 
what the Devil, great enemy of the Christian sheepfold, daily devours 
apace, ' and nothing said. ' Against that wolf no use is made of the sacred 
Word that can subdue him, * of the sword of the Spirit, which is the 
word of God' (Eph. vi. 17). 'But that two-handed engine,' — two-handed, 
because we lay hold of it by the Old Testament and the New, — 

* But that two-handed engine at the door 
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more.' 

Milton wrote 'engine' (contrivance of wisdom) and not 'weapon,' because 
* the word of God, quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged 
sword ' (Heb. iv. 12), when it has once smitten evil, smites no more, 
but heals and comforts. 

** Here again, by a skilful transition, Milton descends to the level of his 
pastoral or Sicilian verse. The river of Arcady has shrunk within its 
"banks at the dread voice of St. Peter, but now it flows again : — 

* Return, Alpheus : the dread voice is past 

That shrunk thy streams ; return, Sicilian Muse, 
And call the vales,' etc. 

*' The first lines of Lycidas connected Milton's strain of love with his 
immediate past. Its last line glances on to his immediate future. 
Milton was preparing for his travel to Italy and Greece : * To-morrow to 
fresh woods and pastures new.' " 



{From R. C. Browne's Introdiiction to the, Clarendon Press Edition of 
Milton's English Poems.'] 
" Milton did not think to sing again for a while. On the conclusion 
of Comus he was prepared to rest, until his life's 'mellowing year' should 
bring to him the inward ripeness he had so long watched for. ' Long 
choosing and beginning late ' his lofty theme, he was anxious not to fore- 
stall the ' season due ' of his laurels by strains which to his purged 
ears would be ' harsh and crude,' though to others they might seem the 
resounding grace of Heaven's harmony. But though thus self-contained, 
-- he shrank from no obligation that human kindness and the custom of 
the time might lay upon him. His friend's meniory claimed and received 
from his gentle muse the meed of a melodious tear. In Lycidas the 
event which gave occasion for the poem has the first place, and to it the 
various changes of theme are subordinate. As he recalls his life at Cam- 
bridge with his friend, and all the rich promise that Death had blighted, 



viii INTRODUCTION. 

the thought presses on him that even for one dearer to the muse than 
Edward King, for one whom universal nature might lament, the same 
dark fate may be at hand. And then of what avail in his strict medita- 
tion and constant straining after lofty ideals, * that he may leave some- 
thing so written to after-times as they should not willingly let it die ' ? 
For throughout his life Milton did not feel the exertion of his energies to 
be its own reward. He desired to know himself and to be known by 
the fruits of that exertion. * His works,' as Hazlitt says, ' are a perpet- 
ual Hjrmn to Fame.' And here he meets and conquers that suggestion of 
the uselessness of high endeavor which has paralyzed so many strong 
arms and subtle brains. It is not we, after all, that are the arbiters of 
true Fame against the injustice of Time : the appeal lies to a higher 
than an earthly judge. As a later poet has sung, what is here left un- 
finished may be wrought out to perfection * somewhere out of human 
view.' After the outburst on Fame, that strain is expressly said to be 
*of a higher mood,' and the pastoral pipe proceeds. Then the stern 
denunciation of * the pilot of the Galilean lake ' scares away the lighter 
mythologic fancies, till they are wooed back by the melodious invocation 
to the Sicilian Muse, with its echoes of Perdita's catalogue of flowers. 
The hand that wrote Comus has not lost its cunning ; but we do not find 
in Lycidas that unity of subject which charms us in the Ludlow Mask. 
The train of thought is divided, as the later title intimates, between the 
private grief and the prophecy of the woe coming upon England. The 
interval of three years had increased the confidence of the court and of 
the clergy. To silence every voice that their own lightest whisper might 
be heard, to keep in abeyance the settlement or to prohibit the discussion 
of questions felt to be vital by men more earnest and not less able than 
themselves, was the constantly sustained intention with which those in 
authority strained every existing statute, and were prepared to assume 
a power above the law. 

"While the bishops in the court of High Commission were judging 
not merely the acts, but the supposed tendencies of others with unrelent- 
ing severity, — their chief, Laud, ever the harshest and hardest, — the 
effects of their own system, palpable to others, were to them invisible. 
The increasing number of proselytes to the old Church, his own inability 
to check the Romeward progress of his disciples, the Pope's offer of a red 
hat to himself, might surely have warned the archbishop that he was 
steering direct * for Latium.' Men who saw these things, and therefore 
distrusted their spiritual pastors and masters, were not without excuse, 
even though some counter-bigotry was evinced in the stand made agafost 
the less important innovations. 

*• In Lycidas we hear the first note of the trumpet which was to be to 
the En";lish throne and Church as were those blown before the walls of 



LYCIDAS. ix 

Jericho. In Lycidas we see the first indications of the vigor and the 
coarseness that strengthen and disfigure the Prose Works. And in 
Lycidas we have the intimation of two facts regarding Milton. He con- 
sidered the day of his youth to be closed by the death of the friend of his 
youth, — that on the morrow he was to seek ' fresh woods and pastures 
new.' But his choice has been made. His mantle is already of the 
Presbyterian color. Henceforth there will be no more quiet communing 
with English oaks and rills. A brief holiday interposes between him 
and a * time of chiding,' which with small respite will vex his spirit till, 
wearied and worn, he rests at last ; 

* Though fallen on evil days, 
On evil days though fallen, and evil tongues.' " 



CHRONOLOGY. 



[The Student should consult biographies, histories, encyclopaedias, etc., and write out 
a connected sketch of Milton's life.] 

- 1608. John Milton born Dec. 9 ; baptized Dec. 20 at Allhallows, 
^Bread Street, near Cheapside. 

1618. His picture is painted by Cornelius Jansen. About this time, 
and for some years, he has a private tutor, Thomas Young, a Puritan. 

1619. Enters St. Paul's School, though still under Young's tuition. 

1624. Still in St. Paul's School. Writes paraphrases of Psalms cxiv. 
and cxxxvi. Is a diligent student. Intimate friend of Charles Diodati. 

1625. Feb. 12. Admitted as a pensioner (i. e. a paying student) of 
Christ's College, Cambridge University. Writes letter, March 26, to 
Young. 

1626. Writes a poem On the Death of a Fair Infant. Has a disagree- 
ment with his tutor, and is absent awhile from college. 

1627. Writes a metrical epistle to Young. 

1628. First smitten with love, as shown in his "Seventh Elegy." 
Letters to Alexander Gill and to Young. Writes Latin verses. Writes 
the noble lines entitled At a Vacation Exercise in the College. 

1629. Writes Latin Elegy to his friend Diodati. Is admitted to the 
degree of B. A., March 26. Writes his famous Ode on the Morning of 
Christ's Nativity, beginning it on Christmas Day. 

1630. Writes ode Upon the Circumcision; also, perhaps, the verses 
On Time, and the lines At a Solemn Music. Here belong the unfinished 
verses On the Passian. Wrote also the important Epitaph on Shakespeare, 
the first verses of Milton to appear in print. 



X INTRODUCTION. 

1631. "Writes two Epitaphs on Hobson, and one on the Marchioness 
of Winchester. Writes a letter to a friend containing the noble Sonnet 
On his being arrived at the Age of Twenty- Three. 

1632. Is graduated M. A. at Cambridge in July. Retires to his fathers 
house at Horton. 

1633. Writes Sonnet To the Nightingale; Song on May Morning ; 
perhaps in this year L' Allegro and II Penseroso. 

1634. Writes Arcades and Comus, acted at Harefield and Ludlow 
respectively ; the latter, Sept. 29, 1634. Latin letter to Alexander Gill, 
enclosing a translation of the 114th Psalm into Greek hexameters. 

1635. Was 'incorporated' as Master of Arts at Oxford, with Jeremy 
Taylor and others. 

1637. His mother dies, April 3. His friend, Edward King, was 
drowned, August 10. Letters to Diodati, Sept. 2 and Sept. 23. Writes 
Lycidas in November. 

1638. Milton leaves England about the middle of April for the Con- 
tinent, receiving, just before his departure, a handsome letter of advice 
and thanks from Sir Henry Wotton. Reaches Florence in September. 
Visits Galileo. Goes to Rome about October 1st. Writes epigrams to 
Leonora Baroni. Goes to Naples. 

1639. In Rome in January and February. Goes again to Florence. 
Receives and writes, about this time, letters, odes, sonnets, etc., in Latin 
and in Italian. Visits Venice. Stops briefly in Geneva. Returns home 
to England about Aug. 1, that he may serve the cause of Liberty. Learns 
of the death of his friend Diodati. Writes his beautiful Epitaphium 
DaTYionis in Latin. 

1640. Resides for a short time in St. Bride's Churchyard, where he 
undertakes the education of a few boys. Takes a garden house in 
Aldersgate Street and continues teaching. Plans sacred dramas, and 
poems on subjects from British history. 

1641. Writes his first pamphlet, entitled Of Reformation in England, 
in May or June ; writes Of Prelatical Episcopacy ; also Animadversums 
on the Remonstrant's Defence. 

1642. Writes The Reason of Church Government urged against Prelaty, 
in which his name first appears upon a title-page. Writes his Apology 
for Smectymnuus ; also, in November, his third Sonnet, entitled Wlicn 
the Assault was intended to the City. 

1643. Marries Mary Powell about June 1. His wife leaves him about 
July 1, to return about Michaelmas ; but fails to come back. 

1644. Writes Areopagitica, Of Education in a Letter to Mr. Samuel 
Hartlih, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce, The Judgment of Martin 
Bucer concerning Divorce ; and perhaps, this year, his Sonnet To a Vir- 
tuous Young Lady, and the Sonnet to Tlie Lady Margaret Ely. His 
sight is a little impaired. 



LYCIDAS. xi 



11645. Writes Tetrachordon, Colasterion, two Sonnets On the Detrac- 
ion which followed upon my writing Certain Treatises. Publishes first 
sdition of his early poems. His wife rejoins him. 
1646. Writes Sonnets To Mr. H. Lawes, in Memory of Mrs. Thomson, 
To Mr. Lawrence, To CyriacTc Skinner, and perhaps, at this time, On the 
New Forcers of Conscience. His first daughter, Anne, is born. 

1647. Removes to Barbican, and then to Holborn. His father dies in 
March. His second daughter, Mary, is born. 

1648. Versifies Psalms Ixxx. to Ixxxvii. in ApriL Begins, this year or 
the next, his History of England. Writes Sonnet To the Lord General 
Fairfax. 

1649. Is appointed Secretary of State. Removes to lodgings at Char- 
, ing Cross, and afterwards in Scotland Yard. Writes Tenure of Kings 
' and Magistrates, Observations on Ormond's Peace, Eikonoklastes. 

1650. Son born and died. 

1651. Writes Defensio pro Populo Anglicano, at the risk of losing his 
eyesight. Takes lodgings in *a pretty garden house/ York Street, 

[ Westminster. Loses the sight of his left eye. 

1 1652. His third daughter, Deborah, born, and his wife dies May 2d. 

, Sonnets to Cromwell, and to Sir Harry Vane. Becomes nearly blind. 

I 1653. Verifies Psalms i. to viii., August. Sonnet On His Blindness. 

I 1654. Totally blind. Writes Defensio Secunda. 

I 1655. Writes Defence of Himself against Alexander More, in Latin. 

i Writes Sonnet On the late Massacre in Piedmont ; Sonnet To Cyriack 

I Skinner Upon his Blindness. 

1656. Marries his second wife, Catherine Woodcock, Nov. 12. 

, 1658. His second wife dies in February. Sonnet On His Deceased 

j - Wife. Edits Raleigh's Cabinet Council. 

; 1659. Writes -4 Treatise of Civil Power in Ecclesiastical Causes, Con- 

siderations touching the Likeliest Means to remove Hirelings, Letter to a 
Friend on the Ruptures of tJie Commonwealth, The Present Means ana 
brief Delineation of a Free Commonwealth. 

1660, Writes The Ready and Easy Way to establish a Free Common- 
wealth ; Notes on a Sermon by Dr. Griffiths. Is concealed at a friend's 
house in Bartholomew Close ; his prosecution is voted by the Commons ; 
his Ikoiioklastes and Defence of the People of England are publicly burnt 
by the common hangman in August. Life saved by the intercession of 
Davenant ? Arrested. Released December 15th. 

1662. Makes the acquaintance of Thomas Ellwood, the Quaker. 

1663. Marries his third wife, Elizabeth Minshull, in February. 
1665. Milton shows Ellwood the MS. of Paradise Lost. Retires to 

Chalfont St. Giles, to escape the plague. Paradise Regained is sug- 
gested by Ellwood. 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

1667. Paradise Lost is sold to Samuel Simmons, April 27. Published 
in ten books. 

1669. Published Accidence Commenced Ghrammar (Latin) ; also His- 
tory of England. 

1671. Paradise Regained is published ; also Samison Agonistes. 

1672. Published Artis Logicce. 

1673. Tnhlished Of True Religion, HeresT/y Schism, and Toleration; 
republished Uarly Poems, with additions. 

1674. Second Edition of Paradise Lost, in twelve books. Published 
Familiar Epistles, and Academic Exercises. Died Kov. 8 ; was buried 
Nov. 12, in the chancel of St. Giles, Cripplegate. 

In addition to the foregoing works, should be named his Brief History 
of Muscovy, his Letters of State, his System of Christian Doctrine, and his 
unfinished Latin Lexicon. 



VARIOUS READINGS IN LYCIDAS. 

Line 26. ... glimmering eyelids of the mom. 
Lines 30, 31 evenstar bright 

Towards heaven's descent had sloped his burnished wheel. 

Line 47. gay buttons wear [bear]. 

Line 58 etc. What could the golden-haired Calliope 

For her enchanting son. 

When site beheld {the gods far-sighted be) 

His gory scalp roll down the Thracian lea. 

[Whom universal Nature might lament, 

And Heaven and Hell deplore, 

When his divine head down the stream was sent.] 

Line 69. Hid in the tangles 

Lines 85, 86 and thou smooth [famed'] flood. 

Soft sliding Mincius 

Line 105. Scrawled o'er with figures dim .... 

Line 129. little said. 

Line 138. stintly looks. 

Line 142 etc. Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies, 

Coloring the j^ale cheek of unenjoyed love, 

And that sad flower that strove 

To write his own woes on the vermeil grain ; 

Next add Narcissus, that still weeps in vain, 

The v)oodbine, and the pansy freaked with jet. 

The glowing violet ; 



LYCIDAS. xiii 

The cowslip wan that hangs his pensive head, 
And every bud that sorrow's livery wears, 
Let daflfodillies 

Line 153. Let our sad thoughts 

Line 154. the /oocfo and sounding seas. 

Line 157. the humming tide. 

Line 160. Corineus old. 

Line 176. Listening the unexpressive nuptial song. 



LYCIDAS 



In this Monody tJie Author bewails a learned friend, un- 
fortunately drowned in his passage from Chester on the 
Irish seas, 1637. And hy occasion foretells the ruin 
of our corru'pted clergy, then in their height. 

Yet once more, ye laurels, and once more, 

The title was added in the edition of 1645. See note on line 8. 

Learned friend. Edward King was a native of Ireland, and the son of Sir 
John King who filled the office of Secretary for Ireland under Elizabeth, 
James I., and Charles I. For eleven years he had been connected with Cam- 
bridge. He was admitted to Christ's College, June 9, 1626, when Milton had 
been there a little over a year. He was made Fellow by mandate of King 
Charles, June 10, 1630. After graduation he filled the academic offices of 
tutor and prselector, and was qualifying himself for the active work of the 
ministry. He composed Latin verses on the birth of the Princess Mary, 1631 ; 
on the king's recovery from the small-pox, 1632-3 ; on the king's return from 
Scotland, 1633 ; on Hausted's play of Senile Odium, 1633 ; on the birth of 
Prince James, 1633 ; on the birth of the Princess Elizabeth, 1635 ; on the birth 
of the Princess Anne, 1636-7. The 10th of August, 1637, he was drowned on 
his passage from Chester to Ireland. It is said that the ship struck on a rock 
off the Welsh coast, and that when the vessel was sinking he knelt in prayer 
on the deck, and so met his fate. He was twenty-five years old, and was noted 
for his piety, scholarship, brilliant talents, and amiable character. 

A book of commemorative verses in honor of him was published in 1638, 
containing three poems in Greek, nineteen in Latin, and thirteen in English. 
Milton's Lycidas was the last of these English elegies. It was signed with 
his initials, and dated November, 1637, Milton being then about 29 years old. 
Monody, a kind of sorrowful poem or song, in which a single mourner ex- 
presses grief. 

1. Yet once more, ye laurels. "Some such fqrmula was frequent with 
poets in beginning a new exercise of their art," says Masson. Warton cites. 



6 LYCIDAS. 

Ye myrtles brown, with ivy never sere, 

I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. 

And with forced fingers rude 

Shatter your leaves before the mellowing year. 

by way of illustration, * Yet once again, my Muse,* from an elegy on the 
death of the Countess of Pembroke, sister of Sir Philip Sidney. See Spen- 
ser's formula at the beginning of the Faerie Queene ; also Virgil's * Jlle ego, 
qui quondam,' etc. Once more. For three years Milton had written no 
poetry ; although his Ilynm on the Nativity, Arcades, Comus, L' Allegro, II 
Penseroso, and other shorter poems, had given abundant promise. Laurels. 
Laurels, myrtles, and ivies are symbolical of poetry. They are evergreens, 
too, and emblematic of immortality. Laurel leaves crowned the victor in the 
games of Apollo, and the fruit in later ages indicated academic honors. Per- 
haps we may say generally that the laurel, sacred to Apollo, typifies the lof- 
tier strains ; the myrtle, sacred to Venus, represents poetry of an amatory or 
affectionate character ; and the ivy, sometimes wreathing the head of Bacchus, 
and sometimes, according to Horace, 'the reward of learned brows,' may sym- 
bolize corresponding kinds of verse. Pliny refers to ivy as forming the coro- 
nals of poets. — Note that the word ' more ' at the end of the first line does not 
rhyme. What other lines in the poem end without rhyme ? Can you assign 
an artistic or {esthetic reason for the omission ? See Masson's Milton's Poet- 
ical Works, Vol. II. p. 276. 

2. Sere. Sere is dry. Shakes, in Macbeth speaks of the * sere, the yellow 
leaf.' Possibly the season of the year when this poem was written, October or 
November, suggested the thought. Ivy leaves in autiimn do to some extent 
become sere ; but the ivy that adorns the brows of true poets is 'never sere.' 
Milton would gather and twine unfading garlands of poesy for Lycidas. Can 
you think of a different explanation ? 

3. I come to pluck your berries harsh and crude. Some critics see in 
these lines an allusion to the unripe age of young King. They think his 
poetic talent, his beauty and ripeness for love, and his learning, are some- 
how typified by laurels, myrtles, and ivy respectively. But is it not more 
likely that Milton means to represent himself as writing poetry prematurely 
and under constraint? He feels that his work must be poor; the 'leaves' 
and 'berries,' the flowers and fruit, must be all unripe ; yet his fingers are 
forced by his friend's death to seize the pen. In his treatise on Reformation 
in England, published in 1(541, and in his Second Defence of the People of 
England, 1G54, as well as in his lines to his native laugiiage, ''At a Vaca- 
tion Exercise in the College" (11. 29-53), he intimates his intention and pref- 
erence in regard to writing a great poem after reaching the full maturity of 
his powers. Crude (Lat. cruor, blood, gore ; crudus, bloody), raw, unripe. 

5. Shatter, 'a modern softening of scatter.* Jerram. See Par. Lost, X. 
1066, Mellowing year, mellowing time of the year. Does this mean, before 
the mellowing year shatters, or before the mellowing year cojnes ? T. Warton 



I 



LYCIDAS. 



Bitter constraint, and sad occasion dear. 

Compels me to disturb your season due : 

For Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime. 

Young Lycidas, and hath not left his peer. 

Who would not sing for Lycidas ? he knew lo 



and many other critics think that Milton's language is not strictly accurate 
here. To all such the caution of Prof. Himes may be suggested, that " care 
needs to be exercised not to condemn before understanding the x>oet." 

6. Constraint. So in Shakespeare's All 's Well that ends Well, we have 
'Love's own sweet constraint.' Dear (A.-S. deore, dyre ; Ice. dyrr ; Dan. 
and Swed. dyr ; Dutch duur ; Ger. theuer, high-priced, costly, expensive. 
Home Tooke erroneously derives it from A.-S. derian, to hurt, dam, harm), 
important ; heart-touching, heart-grieving. This sense of dear is not infre- 
quent in Shakes. ; as, ' dear groans ' in Love's Labor 's Lost, V, 2, 1. 874 ; 
'dearest foe,' in Hamlet, I. ii. 182 ; * dearest spite,' in Sonnet 37. Sad oc- 
casion dear. Note the position of the noun between the two adjectives. 
This is very common in Milton ; as in Par. Lost, V. 5 ; IX. 1003, 1004. It 
is in imitation of the Greek. See note on line QQ. 

7. Compels. This use of the singular may be explained on the theory that 
the real nominative is the whole of the preceding line. For similar instances 
in Shakespeare, see Abbott's Shakes. Gram. § 337. In the north of England 
the third plural of the verb once ended in s. Often, too, in the Elizabethan 
writers, as in the Latin, the verb agrees with the nearest nominative. Season 
due. What is meant ? 

8. Lycidas. (Perhaps fr. Gr. \evK6s, XevKLTrjs in Theocritus, V. 147, light, 
white, pure, akin to lux, light.) Virgil, and before him Theocritus (a Sicilian 
pastoral poet who wrote in Greek about 270 b. c. ) had used this name in pas- 
toral poetry. (See the song in the Seventh Idyl of Theocritus, where Lycidas 
is a goatherd of high poetic talent.) There was an Athenian Lycidas stoned 
to death B. c. 479. Ere his prime. He was but twenty-five. 

9. Young Lycidas. So Spenser, Milton's favorite poet, repeats the word 
Astrophel in his elegy on Sir Philip Sidney, — 

"Young Astrophel, the pride of shepherds' praise, 
Young Astrophel, the rustic lasses' love." 

So the word ' Dido ' in Spenser's eleventh Eclogue, and the word ' Hyacinth ' 
in Milton's Death of a Fair Infant, 25, 26. Peer, equal, from Lat. par, 
Ft. pair, equal. BiO peers in Par. Lost, I. 39, V. 812; but elsewhere the word 
is in Milton, and nsually in Shakespeare, a title of nobility. 

10. Who would not sing for Lycidas ? Here, and often elsewhere in this 
poem, the poet beautifully im.itates Virgil's sweetest pastoral song, the tenth 
Eclogv£: Carmina sunt dicenda : neget quis carmina Gallo 1 songs must iDe 
sung : who can refuse songs to Gallus ? He knew himself to sing, and 



8 LYCIDAS. 

Himself to sing, and build the lofty rhyme. 
He must not float upon his watery bier 
Unwept, and welter to the parching wind. 
Without the meed of some melodious tear. 

Begin, then, Sisters of the sacred well 15 

That from beneath the seat of Jove doth spring ; 
Begin, and somewhat loudly sweep the string : 



build the lofty rhyme. Rime or rhime was written by Milton, but that 
spelling is obsolete. The expression ' build the lofty rhyme ' is like Horace's 
Condis amabile carmen, **Thou buildest a lovely song" {Epist. I. iii. 24) ; Si 
carmina condes, "If thou shalt build songs" {De Arte Poetica) ; and it sug- 
gests also'AoiSas iirijpyuiae (Euripides' Supplices, 1. 998), "Built songs to a 
towering height" ; also 'E7ri;/o7awras prj/xara (refivd, Aufthurmtest erhabcne 
Phrasen, "Didst build the stately rhyme " {Frogs of Aristophanes, 1. 1004). 
What poetry had King * built ' ? Knew to sing is an imitation of a frequent 
idiom in Latin and Greek. It is pronounced by some critics * unnecessary 
and inaccurate ' in English, but it is perfectly well authorized ; as in Jaincs 
iv. 17. So in Comus, 87. Lat. cariere callehat ; Gr. &beLv rjiriaraTO. 

12. Bier (Old Eng. baer, Lat. feretrmn, that which bears, Gr. (p^perpov). 

13. Welter (A.-S. waeltan, to roll ; akin to wallow, Ger. loaltzen, Lat. 
volvo, volutare, Fr. vautrer, to roll). Parching, blistering, shrivelling ; spok- 
en of cold as well as heat. See Par. Lost, II. 594 ; Xenophon's Anabasis, 
IV. V. 3. Note the alliteration. What of the rhyme ? 

14. Melodious tear. So in Milton's Epitaph on the Marchioness of Win- 
chester, 1. 55, we have, "Here be tears of perfect moan." Translate Milton's 
line into prose. What is metonymy ? Give other examples. 

15. Begin then, Sisters. Who were the nine Muses ? Of what was each 
the patron goddess ? What can you say of the custom of invoking the Muses ? 
The sacred well. The Pierian spring near Mount Olympus, says Masson. 
So the Clarendon Press edition. But no such spring is mentioned in the clas- 
sics. Where was Castalia ? Aganippe? Hippocrene ? for what noted ? "The 
* sacred well,'" says Jerram, "is Aganippe on Mount Helicon, and the 'seat 
of Jove ' is the altar upon the same hill." Stevens and Morris suggest that 
the snow-covered top of Helicon is here called the seat of Jove, the lord of 
light. The original home of the Muses is said to have been in Pieria in 
Macedonia, near the foot of Mount Olympus. Afterwards Mount Helicon in 
Boeotia was their favorite abode. So Mount Parnassus. Consult a classical 
atlas. (See the first lines of Hesiod's Theogony, where we find him singing 
* ' with the Heliconian Muses, who keep the divine and spacious mount of 
Helicon, and wh» also with delicate feet dance about the violet-hued fount 
and altars of the mighty son of Cronos.") Rhyme to ' well ' ? 

17. String. Meaning of ' string ' ? What is synecdoche ? 



tLYCIDAS. 9 

ence with denial vain, and coy excuse, 
tto may some gentle Muse 

With lucky words favor my destined urn; 20 

And as he passes turn, 
And bid fair peace be to my sable shroud. 

For we were nursed upon the selfsame hill; 
Fed the same flock, by fountain, shade, and rill; 
Together both, ere the high lawns appeared 25 



18. Hence. Verb or adverb ? Coy (Lat. quietus ; Fr. coi), shy, shrinking. 
In Shakespeare this word repeatedly means disdainful, which perhaps is the 
true signification in this passage. 

19. So may. See Virgil, Eclogue, X. 4 ; Horace, Odes, I. iii. 1. 

20. TJrn. How did the Greeks dispose of their dead ? the Eomans ? What 
does the 'urn' in this verse represent ? See Shakes. Coriolanus, V. vi. 146 ; 
Henry V. , I. ii. 228. Favor is used technically like Latin favere (Gr. eiKprjfxe'ip). 

. See Horace, Odes, III. i. 2. The word my is emphatic. 

21. He passes. Muse here must mean poet ; hence the masculine. It is 
a pretty bold use of language, and therefore Miltonic ! Metonymy ? 

22. Can you think of a good reason for omitting the rhyme here ? What 
is the general effect of such omissions in this poem ? Why is the ' shroud ' 
called 'sable'? Origin of the word 'sable'? 'Shroud' is A.-S. scrud, or 
garment. In Comus, 1. 147, 'shroud' means hiding-place, shelter, recess. 
Does it here mean 'grave,' or is it used literally ? In Sylvester we find 'sable 
shroud,' 'sable tomb,' and 'sable chest' (i. e. coffin). In Horace's twenty- 
eighth Ode, Book I., the passer-by is called upon to sprinkle a little sand upon 
the dead body of a drowned man, — " give him a little earth for charity." 

23. For, referring back to lines 15, 19, etc. Here the allegory begins. 
Nursed upon the selfsame hill. Here we have the metaphorical language 
of pastoral poetry. A ' shepherd ' is a poet. " The hill is Cambridge." The 
university is their nursing mother. Milton and King had been fellow- 
students there, "visiting each other's rooms, taking walks together, perform- 
ing academic exercises in common, exchanging literary confidences ; all which, 
translated into the language of the pastoral, makes them fellow-shepherds, 
who had driven their flock afield together in the morning, and fed it all day 
by the same shades and rills, not without mutual ditties on their oaten flutes, 
when sometimes other sliepherds or even fauns and satyrs would be listen- 
ing." Masson, 

25. Lawns (Old Fr., lande; Welsh, llan ; Dutch, laen ; Eng., lane; Old 
Celtic, Ian, a place, an area or open space). "A lawn is a plain among trees," 
says old Camden. " The restriction of the meaning to grass kept smooth in 
a garden is comparatively modem." Jerram. "It is remarkable," says 
Wedgwood, " that lawn, an open space between woods, seems to be so called 



10 LYCIDAS, 

Under the opening eyelids of the mom, 
We drove afield, and both together heard 
What time the gray-fly winds her sultry horn, 
Battening our flocks with the fresh dews of night, 
Oft till the star that rose at evening bright 30 

from the opportunity of seeing through." Akin to the Norse glana, rjleine, 
to stare, look steadily, to open (as clouds) and leave a clear space ; glan, an 
opening among clouds ; glenna, a clear open space among woods, or between 
cliffs. Appeared, etc. In L" Allegro, 41 to 44, Milton would 

" Hear the lark begin his flight, 
And singing, startle the dull night. 
From his watch-tower in the skies. 
Till the dappled dawn doth rise." 

26. The opening eyelids of the morn. The phrase * eyelids of the morn- 
ing ' is found in the marginal reading for ' dawning of the day ' in Job iii. 9 ; 
also in the Antigone of Sopliocles, 1. 103 ; also in Henry More, Sylvester, and 
Middleton. Covins, 1. 978 ; Milton's second Sonnet, 1. 5, and II Penseroso, 1. 
141, are referred to by the critics. 

27. Drove afield. See in Gray's Elegy, — 

" How jocund did they drive their team afield." 

"The a in 'afield' is a dialectic form of an of the preposition on." Jerram. 
So ' aboard,' ' afoot,' etc. Heard. What was the sound of ea in the time of 
Shakes, and Milt,? See Marsh's Lectures on the English Language, First 
Series, pp. 477, 478, 479, etc.; also White's Shakespeare, Vol. XII., Appen- 
dix, pp. 417, 418, 419 ; and Earle's PhUol. of the English Tongue, pp. 170 - 
178, Clarendon Press edition. 

28. What time. Latin quo tempore, at the time when. Tliis use of the 
Latin idiom is very common in Milton and other poets. We still use it in 
direct and indirect questions. The gray-fly. The trumpet-fly ? Its 'sultry 
horn ' is the loud buzzing of its wings in the heat of noon. " A writer in the 
Edinburgh Review (July, 1868) suggests that the gray-fly may be the grig or 
criclcet, 01<1. Eng. graeg-hama, gray-coat." 

29. Battening, making fat by feeding. The word may be akin to letter. 
See Wedgwood's Diet, of Eng, Etymology. Batten in Shakes. {Coriolanus, 
IV. V. 35, and Hamlet, III. iv. 67) means to grow fat. See note on boots, 
line 64, Flocks. Poetical fancies ? or studies ? or what ? 

30. In the first draft Milton wrote 'Oft till the even-star bright.' 'The 
star' is any star that so rose. See, hoAvever, Faerie Queene, III. iv. 51 ; 
Comus, 1. 168 ; the Argonautica of Apollonius, IV. 163 ; which passages tend 
to show that the poets erred in their avStronomy. Milton's change of the lan- 
guage looks as if he sought to avoid the error. To what does ' bright ' belong? 



LYCIDAS. 11 

Toward heaven's descent had sloped his westering wheel. 
Meanwhile, the rural ditties were not mute, 
Tempered to the oaten flute; 

Eough Satyrs danced, and Fauns with cloven heel 
From the glad sound would not be absent long, 35 

And old Damoetas loved to hear our song. 

31. Sloped. So Shakespeare uses the word ' slope ' in the sense of hend domi, 
in Macbeth, IV. i. 57. Note how beautifully Milton draws out the time of 
these . poetical and studious occupations ; they 'begin before dayliglit, they 
continue at noon and at evening ; they are prolonged till the star that twin- 
kled on the eastern horizon at nightfall has passed the meridian ! Westering'. 
Some of the dictionaries mark this beautiful word as obsolescent- B;it it is 
used by Hillhouse, as also by Whittier, and other recent poets. It would be 
discreditable to let it drop out of the language- Chaucer uses toestrin ; Burns, 
westling ; Cook's Voyages, westing. Milton's first draft has 'burnisht.' 

33. Tempered, modulated to a certain key, attuned, adjusted- So in Par. 
Lost., VII. 1. 598. In Shakespeare we have 'ink tempered with love's sighs' 
{Love's Labor 's Lost, IV. iii. 347). The Italian temprar, aud Lat- temper are 
are so used (Gr. r^ixvd), to cut, divide, distribute). Oaten flute, a rude 
musical instrument fashioned from oaten straw? Virgil's Silvestrem tenai 
micsam meditaris avena, " You practise rural minstrelsy upon a slender oaten 
pipe," will be recalled by all lovers of Latin. More familiar is Shakespeare's, 
*'When shepherds pipe on oaten straws " {Zone's Labor's Lost, V. ii. 913). 
So repeatedly we have ' oaten pipe ' in Spenser. But was the pipe or flute 
made of oaten straw ? See on this poiat a valuable note in Jerram's edition 
of Lycidas, 1. 33. He thinks that our older poets took the expression * oaten 
pipe ' or ' oaten straw ' from an over-literal rendering of avena. 

34. Satyrs (Lat. satyri). How pronounced ? Satyrs were a kind of semi- 
deity, in form half man aud half goat, inhabiting forests. They had the feet 
and legs of goats, short budding horns behind their ears, snub nose, a goat's 
tail, and the body covered with thick hair. They had a lascivious, half-bj-utal 
natxu-e. They were companions of Bacchus, aud formed the chorus of a 
species of drama named from them. Perhaps they were originally the rustics 
who danced in goatskin dresses at the festivals of that jolly deity. FaUns 
{hzi. fauni). These, too, were country deities, very like the satyrs, but devel- 
oped to a nearer resemblance to human beings. They are usually ' young and 
frolic of mien, with round faces expressive of merriment, and not without 
an occasional mixture of mischief.' See Hawthorne's Marble Faun. " The 
Satyrs and Fauns may be the miscellaneous Cambridge undergraduates ; and 
old Damoetas may be some fellow or tutor of Christ's College, if not Dr. 
Bainbridge, the master." Af assort. But see Spenser's Pastoral Eclogue on 
the Death of Sir Philip Sid-)zey, lines 116, 117. 

36. DamcBtas. Milton found this name in several Uclogioes of Virgil, who 



12 LYCIDAS. 

But oh ! the heavy change, now thou art gone, 
Now thou art gone, and never must return ! 
Thee, shepherd, thee the woods and desert caves, 
With wild thyme and the gadding vine o'ergrown, 40 
And all their echoes mourn. 
The willows, and the hazel-copses green. 
Shall now no more be seen 
Fanning their joyous leaves to thy soft lays. 
As killing as the canker to the rose, • 45 

Or taint-worm to the weanling herds that graze, 

took it from the sixth Idi/l of Theocritus. Masson thinks the word *'has in 
it a sound of 3Ieade" who was a noted fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. 
Damcetas in Sidney's Arcadia is a 'suspicious, uncouth, arrant, doltish 
clown ' ; and it has hence been suggested that Milton meant his old tutor 
Chappell, with whom he had had trouble at college in 1626 ! 

37. Now, includes the reason ; because. Scott calls attention to the pecul- 
iar and very ai)propriate ' languid melody ' of the next twelve lines. 

39. Shepherd, Lycidas. Caves rhymes to nothing here. Why the omis- 
sion ? 

40. Gadding, straggling, erratic. Warburton says that the vine married to 
the elm is like too many other wives, fond of gadding abroad ! * Gadding 
vines ' is found in Marvell. Gad, from go (yede and yode in Spenser) was a 
common word. Chaucer has gadlyng = vsLgrant. Stevens and Morris derive 
it from Old Eng. gad, the point of a weapon, the same as goad; hence 
gad-fly, and the verb to gad, to go restlessly about. So Wedgwood, Diet. 
Etym. 

41. Echoes. In Spenser's Epithalamium we have * all their echoes ring ' ; 
also in Moschus' Elegy on Bion, 30, and Shelley's Adonais, XV., Echo 
mourns. The lines 39 to 44 are very similar to lines 23 to 28 in Spenser's 
Colin Clouts Co'ine, Home Again. In Ovid's Met, Book XI. Fable I. 43, 
woods, rocks, animals, mourn for Orpheus. 

45. Canker, canker-worm, a caterpillar ; so often in Shakespeare, as, 

" Hath not thy rose a canker ? " 

Henry F/., III. iv. 68. 

So Two Gentlemen of Verona, I. i. 43, and elsewhere. 

46. Graze, from grass. Note the change of the sound of s when the noim 
is changed to a verb. Similar changes in use, excuse, rise, etc. ? Taint-worm. 
Some of the critics think tliis loorm, was " a small red spider " ! They quote 
from Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, Book III. c. 27. Weanling, a di- 
minutive of weanel, from loean (Old Eng. wenian, A.-S. wunian, Ger. gewoli- 
nen, to accustom) ; not the same word as eanling in Shakespeare. 



LYGIDAS. 13 

Or frost to flowers that their gay wardrobe wear 
When first the white-thorn blows ; 
Such, Lycidas, thy loss to shepherd's ear. 

Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 
Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 51 

For neither were ye playing on the steep 
Where your old bards, the famous Druids, lie, 
Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high. 
Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 55 

47. "Wardrobe, apparel. Its etymology? The first draft had 'buttons.' 

48. When first. The white-thorn (hawthorn) blooms in May, the 'may- 
tree.' Lines 48, 49 are an echo of Midsummer Night's Dream, I. i. 185, 186. 

50. Nymphs, Muses. In lines 50 to 55 Milton closely imitates, as Virgil 
in his tenth Eclogue had done, a passage in the first Idyl of Theocritus. The 
passage is greatly admired. MOton, as usual, outdoes his predecessors. Simi- 
lar passages are pointed out in Spenser's Astrojohel, Lord Lyttelton on the 
Death of his Wife, Shelley's A donais, and Ossian's Dar-thula. 

52. The steep. This, says Masson, may be any of the Welsh mountains 
where the Druids lie buried. "Mr. Keightley suggests Penmaenmawr. " This 
overhangs the sea, between Conway and Bangor in Carnarvonshire, opposite 
Anglesey. It is 1400 feet high, and is crowned with ruins of ancient fortifica- 
tions. Warton suggests the sepultures of the Druids at Kerig-y-Druidion 
mentioned by old Camden, among the mountains of South Denbighshire. The 
legends favor the latter supposition. 

53. Druids {GslqMc druidh, magician ; ivomderu, oaks, and 5'?/jyc?cZ, knowl- 
edge ?) Of this order, at once priests, bards, and philosophers, see the ac- 
counts in the classical dictionaries, the encyclopedias, and the works there 
cited. 

54. Mona. Not here, as it sometimes is, the Isle of Man, but Anglesey. 
" The shaggy top is the high interior of Anglesey, the island fastness of the 
Druids, once thick with woods." Masson. "The sacred groves, stained with 
the blood of human sacrifices," were destroyed by the Roman general Pauli- 
nus (see Tacitus, Annals, 14, 29, etc.). The old poet Drayton (1563 - 1631) in 
his Poly-Olbion (1613), twelfth Song, speaks of the ' shaggy heaths ' of An- 
glesey. 

65. Deva. The river Dee, elsewhere called by Milton the 'ancient hallowed 
Dee,' and by Drayton the ' ominous flood,' forms the old boundary between 
England and Wales. It was once believed that by some changes in its bed 
or current the river gave the inhabitants intimations of coming good or ill- 
It is about seventy miles long, and in the lower part of its course it ' spreads' 
into an estuary about 14 miles long and from 2 to 6 miles wide. " Many Ar- 
thurian legends 9,nd other superstitions belonged to it, and hence it was often 



14 LYCIDAS. 

Ay me ! I fondly dream, 

" Had ye been there " ; for what could that have done ? 

"What could the muse herself that Orpheus bore, 

The Muse herself for her enchanting son. 

Whom universal Nature did lament, 60 

AVhen, by the rout that made the hideous roar, 

His gory visage down the stream was sent, 

Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore ! 

called ' the holy Dee.' " See Faerie Queene, I, ix. 4, 5. Chester, from which 
King set sail, is on the Dee. Dee was latinized to JJeva, perhaps from a no- 
tion (connected with the old superstition) that the word meant God's water 
{Dei aqita). Better from Gaelic da-abh {ddv), double water, or confluence. 

56. Ay. Equivalent to ahl Ay me, ah me! (Span. Ay de mi; Ital. 
AhiviL) Not the affirmative ay. Fondly, foolishly. "I fondly dream," 
token I say, " Had ye been there," etc. Jerram. Old Eng. fonne, to make 
foolish. Fond occurs repeatedly in Shakespeare in the sense of foolish ; as, 

" I do wonder, 
Thou naughty jailer, that thou art so fond 
To come abroad with him at his request." 

Merchant of Venice, III. iii. 8, 9, 10. * 

58. Muse. Calliope, mother of Orpheus. See Par. Lost, VII. 32-38. 
Orpheus. ' ' The unparalleled singer and musician, the power of whose harp or 
lyre drew wild beasts, and even rocks and trees, to follow him. He was the 
son of the Muse Calliope ; and yet, according to the legends, his was a tragic 
death. His continued grief for his wife Eurydice, after he had failed to re- 
cover her from the underworld, so off'ended the Thracian women that they 
fell upon him in one of their Bacchanalian orgies, and tore him to pieces. 
The fragments of his body were collected by the Muses and buried with all 
honor at the foot of Mount Olympus ; but his head, having been tlirown into 
the river Hebrus, was rolled down to the sea, and so carried to the island of 
Lesbos." See Ovid, Met., Book XI. Fable I. 1-61, This passage in Lyci- 
das, from line 58 to 68, was carefully revised, as the various readings shoAv in 
the original draft. Line 58 read in MS., "What could the golden-haired Cal- 
liope?" 

61. Rout. Wedgwood [Diet, of Eng. Etymology) says that from the noise 
made by a crowd of people (0. Fr. route, Ger. rotte, Eng. rout) tlie word came 
to signify a noisy crowd, troop, or gang of people. Possibly from Lat. ruptn ? 

63. Hebrus, now the river Maritza. Milton perhaps took the phrase ' swift 
Hebrus ' from volucrevi Hehnun in Virgil's jEneid, I. 317, a reading which 
many critics change to vnlucrcm Eurum. But "swiftness v/as a general at- 
tribute of riYers." Lesbian. Lesbos {now 31 itylen, i. e. Mitylene) was an im- 
portant island of the .^gean Sea, 75 or 80 miles from the moutli of tlie Hebrus. 



LYCIDAS. 15 

Alas ! what boots it with uncessant care 
To tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade, 65 

And strictly meditate the thankless Muse ? 
Were it not better done as others use. 
To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, 
Or with the tangles of Nesera's hair? 
r.3jne^J^^he sj^ur that_the_jjlear_spirit doth raise 70 

The Lesbians piously buried the head, and were rewarded with pre-eminence 
in song ! The fate of OriDheus is briefly told in Far. Lost, VII. 34-37. 

64. Boots, profits. A.-S. betan, to improve ; bdt, compensation. In the 
prologue to the Canterbury Tales Chaucer says of his Doctor of Physic, " Anon 
he gave to the sick man his boot," i. e. remedy. TJncessant. This is Milton's 
word, which has been changed to incessant. The forms were interchangeable. 
See 'unperfect,' Ps. cxxxix. 16. 

65. Tend the homely, slighted shepherd's trade, to practise poetry. 
Spenser, in his pastoral allegory. The Shepherd's Calendar, June, has the 
phrase 'scorn of homely shepherd's quill.' The quiet and seclusion of a 
shepherd's life aflford ample opportunity for the composition of poetry. 

^^. Strictly meditate the thankless Muse, diligently practise minstrelsy 
that gives no recompense. Thankless, as in the phrase 'thankless task.' 
See note on 1. 33. See also Comus, 1. 547. The student will note Milton's 
adoption of classical phrases ; as, 

* So thick a drop serene.' 

Paradise Lost, III. 25. 

67. Use, are wont to do. This alludes to the fashionable love-poetiy of 
the day. 

68. Amaryllis and Neaera are girls loved by shepherds in Virgil's Eclogues, 
and in other pastorals. Ariosto mentions them both {Orlando Fwioso, XI. 
12). They figure also in the amatory verses of George Buchanan (1506- 
1582). In Buchanan's last Elegy Cupid cuts a lock from Nesera's head while 
she sleeps, and with it binds the old poet, who, ' thus entangled, is delivered a 
prisoner' to the fair Nesera. Lovelace (1618-1658) recollects Buchanan or 
Milton in one of his verses To Althea, ' Wlien I lie tangled in her hair.' Ama- 
ryllis CAfxdpvWis, from afxapva-aoj) is the 'sjparUing one.' She is the subject 
of one of the Idyls of Theocritus. 

70. Clear = Latin claries, illustrious, noble. So, repeatedly, in Shakespeare, 
as in Merchant of Venice, II, ix. 42, we have 'clear honor,' i. e. 'honor 
bright.' But Jerram thinks the 'clear spirit ' is the spirit ' purified by eleva- 
tion into a clearer atmosphere.' Spur. Spenser, in Tears of the Muses, has 
the line ' Due praise, that is the spur of doing well. ' * Spirit ' is said by most 
critics to be a monosyllable here, like ' sprite ' ; but is it necessary so to re- 
gard it ? May not an anapest take the place of an iambus ? 

V 



16 LYCIDAS. 

(That last infirmity of noble mind) 
^^scom_d^^Lts^^j;P,^^U^ 
But the fair guerdon when we hope to find. 
And think to burst out into sudden blaze, 
Comes the blind Fury with the abhorred shears, 75 
And slits the thin-spun life. "But not the praise," 
Phoebus replied, and touched my trembling ears ; 

71. That last infirmity of noble mind. So Tacitus has, Etiam sapienti- 
bus cu2ndo glorice novissima exuitur, which Sir Henry Wotton liad in mind in 
his Panegyric on James I., addressed to King Charles, " I will not deny his 
appetite for glory, which generous minds do ever latest part from." " Pride," 
says Bishop Hall (1574-1656), '4s the inmost coat, which we put on first and 
put off last." In the Deipnosophists of Athenajus (B. XI. sec. 116) we find 
the passage, '' Plato said, ' The last tunic, the desire of glory, we lay aside 
in death itself,' "Eaxo-rov rbv r^s do^rjs x'-t^^^- ^^ ''''$ Bavartii avrl^ airobvh- 
fieda." 

72. The Clarendon Press edition quotes on this line the following from 
Milton's Academical Exercise, VII., ''Not to wait for glory when one has 
done well, — that is above all glory." 

73. Guerdon (Low Latin widerdonum, from Old High German widar, 
again, and Lat. donum, gift ; Old French guerdon), reward, requital. It was 
in use in Chaucer's time ; then seems to have become obsolete, but was re- 
vived and in common use in the Elizabethan period ; but nearly obsolete again 
in the 18th century. ( A.-S. wither, against, in return for ; lean, reward. ) 

74. Think to burst out. ' Think we shall burst out ' ? or, ' think it will 
burst out ' ? Blaze. So Pindar, Nemean Odes, X. 4, " Argos is enkindled 
(i. 6. burns, glows, shines) by countless glorious deeds." So Nem. Odes, VI. 
66. See Par. Regained, III. 47. 

75. Fury. Milton here takes the liberty of calling Atropos (destiny) a 
fury. In Mythology the FaricB (Erinnyes) were very dift'erent from the Fates 
{Parcce, or Greek Motpat)- Atropos, one of the three Fates, was represented 
as standing with shears ready to cut the thread of life which her sister Clo- 
tho was spinning on the distaff ; while the third sister, Lachesis, was point- 
ing to the horoscope, which determined the length of tlie thread. See ' Horo- 
scope,' in Webs. Unabridged Diet. Tennyson calls time, ' a maniac scattering 
dust,' and life, 'a Fury, slinging flame.' {In Memoriam, xlix. 2.) Why 
* blind'? Abhorred shears, called by Spenser the 'cursed knife,' Faerie 
Queene, IV. ii. 48. 

76. Slits. Is this word properly applicable to 'praise ' ? What is ze^cgma t 

77. Phoebus, Apollo, the god of prophecy and song. In Virgil's sixth Ec- 
logue, of which we see other traces in Lycidas, we find, 

" Cum canerem reges et proelia, Cyn thins aurem 
Vellit, et admonuit," 



LYCIDAS. 17 

"Fame is no plant tliat grows on mortal soil, 

Nor in the glistering foil 

Set off to the world, nor in broad rumor lies; 80 

But lives and spreads aloft by those pure eyes, 

And perfect witness of all-judging Jove ; 

As he pronounces lastly on each deed, 

Of so much fame in Heaven expect thy meed." 

fountain Arethuse, and thou honored flood, 85 

Smooth-sliding Mincius, crowned with vocal reeds, 

* When I would sing of kings and "battles, the Cynthian Apollo [i. e. Phoebus] 
twitched my ear and admonished me.' Masson thinks that here is an allu- 
sion to the popular notion of a tingling sensation in one's ears, indicating that 
people are talking of him ; as if Milton felt at the moment that absent peo- 
ple were weighing his words, and calculating his chances of immortal fame. 
" Conington (on Virgil's lines above-quoted) remarks that touching the ear 
was a symbolical act, the ear being the seat of memory." 

78 - 84, ' The answer Milton would give to the critics imagined in the pre- 
ceding note.' Masson. 

79. Foil. Milton's words, says JeiTam, admit of a twofold construction. 
By the first construction, 'foil' ''must be understood of a dark substance 
(originally a thin leaf[folium\ of metal), in which jewels were placed to ' set 
off ' their lustre." By the second construction, which is preferred by him, 

* foil ' is tinsel, ' some baser metal which glitters like gold, and makes a fair 
show to the eye.' " Perhaps the idea of ' foil ' {folium) was suggested by the 
word ' plant,' " the metaphor reappearing in line 81. ' Foil set off ' is, then, ' a 
fair show ostentatiously displayed ' to the world. Is this explanation correct ? 

81. Pure eyes. See Comus, 1. 213, Habak. i. 13. For this whole passage, 
see Paradise Regained, III. 60 to 65. 

82. Jove. How about the rhyme ? Meaning of * witness ' in this line ? 

83. Lastly, finally, like the Lat. xdtimum. 

84. Meed. In Faerie Queene, III. x. 31, we find the line, " Fame is my 
meed, and glory virtue's pay." 

85. Arethuse, a famous fountain in Ortygia, an island at the mouth of the 
' Great Harbor ' of Syracuse in Sicily. It used to be said that a cup, thrown 
into the river Alpheus, would reappear in the fountain ArethuSa, hundreds 
of miles away. See the legend of Alpheus and Arethusa in the classical dic- 
tionaries. The nymph of the fotmtain was regarded as the muse that inspired 
the Sicilian poet Theocritus, whom Virgil and Milton imitate. She was a 
companion of Diana. Is the word made a dissyllable by modernizing it ? 

86. Mincius, a stream in northern Italy, one of the tributaries of the Po, 
in Venetia, near Mantua, the birthplace and home of Virgil, who often men- 
tions the streara. The river god of the Mincius might be supposed to inspire 
Virgil's pastorals. Smooth-Bliding. An epithet used by Milton's favorite 



18 LYCIBAS. 

That strain I heard was of a higher mood: 

But now my oat proceeds, 

And listens to the herald of the sea, 

That came in Neptune's plea; 90 

He asked the waves, and asked the felon winds, 

" What hard mishap hath doomed this gentle swain ? " 

And questioned every gust of rugged wings 

That blows from off each beaked promontory. 

They knew not of his story ; 95 

And sage Hippotades their answer brings, 

Sylvester in Du Bartas, 1. 171, * the crystal of smooth-sliding floods.' Tlie 
' reed ' is from Virgil. See Jerram's note on Lycidas, 1. 33. In Virgil's seventh 
Eclogue we have Hie virides tenera prcetexit arundine ripas Mincius, ' Here 
Mincius has fringed the green banks Avith the pliant reed.' In uEneid, X. 205, 
206, we have ' Mincius decked with sea-green reeds,' Mincius being the name 
of a ship bearing the figure of the river god. 

87. Higher mood. The noble words of Phoebus were loftier than the lan- 
guage of simple pastoral song. Mood is here musical or poetical style (Lat. 
modus, 'a certain arrangement of intervals in the musical scale'). See Par- 
adise Lost, I. 550. 

88. Oat. See note on 1. 33. Do not imagine a child's corn-pipe of straw ! 

89. Herald. " Triton, the trumpeter of the waves, who now came, in the 
name of Neptune, to conduct a judicial inquiry into the cause of the death of 
Lycidas." Masson. For Triton's 'wreathed horn,' see Holmes's Chambered 
Nautilus, and Wordsworth's twenty-third Sonnet (Little and Brown's ed., 
Vol. II. p. 341). 

90. Plea {La,t. 2ilaciium, that which is pleasing to the court; from ^;Zacerg, 
to please ; 0. Yreuch plait) behalf ; 'name.' He came to hold an inquest ? 

91. Felon {F\\ felon ; Ital. fello; perhaps akin to A.-S. fell, cruel; or 
from Welsh gtvall, defect ; fall, bad ; falloni, perfidy ; Gaelic feall, betray. 
Brachet makes it from the Low Lat. fellonem, a thief, a word which occurs 
but once), cruel, with the added sense of 'criminal.' Wliat of the rhyme of 
lines 91, 92 ? 

92. Doomed (Old Eng. dom, Gothic doms, judgment, jurisdiction ; A.-S. 
deman, to judge). Swain, a laborer, a young man. Old Eng. swdn, a herds- 
man ; Old Norse svein, a boy, a servant ; Dan, svend, a bachelor. 

93. Wings. Explain this metaplior, also that in the word 'beaked' in 
the next line. Are the gusts winged, or do the " wings of the wind " fan 
with gusts ? Is the meaning, rough-winged gusts ? Marvell calls great ships 
'beaked promontories, sailed from far.' In Drayton's Poly-Olbion, 1st Song, 
we have ' the utmost end of Cornwall's furrowing heak.^ 

96. Hippotades, ^olus, the god of the winds, son of Hippotes. See 
Ovid's Met., XIV. '229, etc. 



LYCIDAS. 19 

That not a blast was from his dungeon strayed; 

The air was calm, and on the level brine 

Sleek Panope with all her sisters played. 

It was that fatal and perfidious bark, 100 

Built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark. 

That sunk so low that sacred head of thine. 

Next Camus, reverend sire, went footing slow, 
His mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge 

97. His may be for its, referring to "blast ; or it may refer to Hippotaues 
(Mollis), in whose cave the winds were imprisoned. See JEneicl, I. 52-63. 

98. Level brine, the Latin cequora or cequor, the ' flat sea,' as he calls it 
in Conius, 1. 375. 

99. Panope (G-r. irav, all, d3^, the eye ; root ott, to see, whence Lat. oc-ulns, 
Goth, augo ; A.-S. eage ; Ger. OAige ; Eug. eye ; the one all-eye, or far-seeing), 
mentioned by Homer and Hesiod as one of the fifty sea-nymphs, daughters of 
Nerens, who lives in a palace at the bottom of the sea. Panope is named 
among them by Virgil {^Eneid, V, 240) and Spenser {Faerie Queene, IV. xi, 
49). She is especially named here by Milton, because of her wide lookout 
over the deep. Sleek, glossy, shining. So the mermaids, like the seal, ap- 
pear, when emerging from the water. 

100. Bark, ship. 

101. In the eclipse. Milton neatly alludes to the superstition which made 
an eclipse a time of evil omen. Among the ingredients in the famous caldi'on 
of the witches in Macbeth are 

* Slips of yew, 
Slivered in the moon's eclipse.' 

**Than eclipses of the sun and moon nothing is more natural ; yet with what 
superstition they have been beheld since the tragedy of Nicias and his army 
(b. c. 414) many examples declare." (Sir Thomas Browne's Vulgar Errors, 
I. 11.) Eigged, etc. Tlie rigging is full of curses which cling there. 

103. Camus, god of the river Cam, on which Cambridge (bridge over the 
Cam) was built ; and so the tutelary genius of Cambridge University. Of 
course he would feel a mournful interest in the sad fate of his most hopeiul 
child Lycidas. Footing slow. Spenser uses the epithet 'slow-footing.* 
The river is very sluggish ; and hence the highway-surveyors and civil en- 
gineers, when they turn critics, infer that Milton meant to characterize the 
movement of the water only ! The first line of Goldsmith's Traveller is, 

'Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow.' 

Sloto for slowly ; the adjective for the adverb, as often is the case in Shake- 
speare. Sometimes this coincidence of form arises from dropping the adverbial 
ending e ; sometimes, from the word describing the actor rather tliaji the act, 

104. Mantle hairy and his bonnet sedge, etc. " The mantle," said Mr. 



20 LYCIDAS. 

Inwrought with figures dim, and on the edge 105 

Like to that sanguine flower inscribed with woe. 

" Ah ! who hath reft/' quoth he, " my dearest pledge ? " 

Last came, and last did go 
The pilot of the Galilean lake; 
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain — no 

Plumptre in a Latin note, which appeared in a Greek translation of Lycidas 
in 1797, *'is as if made of the plant 'river-sponge,' which floats copiously in 
the Cam ; the bonnet of the river-sedge, distinguished by vague marks trace<l 
somehow- over the middle of the leaves, with the edge of the leaves serrated, 
after the fashion of the at al of the hyacinth." " It is said that the flags of 
the Cam still exhibit, when dried, these dusky streaks in the middle," and 
apparently 'scrawled o'er' (as Milton's MS. first had it instead of 'inwrought ') 
with dotted marks ' on the edge.' 

105. Inwrought. What was inwrought ? The 'mantle ' ? or the ' bonnet ' ? 
or both ? 

106. That sanguine flower, the hyacinth, sprung from the blood of the 
youth of that name, accidentally slain by Apollo. See Milton's Death of a 
Fair Infant, st. 4 : also Ovid, Met, X. 162, et seq., where we have the lines 

" Ipse suos gemitus foliis inscribit ; et, ai, ai, 
Flos habet inscriptum." 

Apollo himself inscribes his own lamentations on the leaves, and the flower 
has ai, ai (alas, alas !) written thereon. Another tradition makes the hya- 
cinth to have sprung from the blood of Telemonian Ajax. (Pausanias, Itin- 
erary, I. 35, sec. 3 ; Ovid, Met., XIII. 397, etc.) 

107. Pledge, offspring, like Latin pignus. So in Bacon's Essays (Mar- 
riage), children are called the ' dearest pledges.' See first line of the verses, 
At a Solemn Music. Keft (A.-S. reajian, to rob; Old Eng. reave, whence 
bereave), snatched away. Quoth (A.-S. cwethan, to say, past tense, civaeth). 
Used in first and third persons, and the past tense. Stevens and Morris are 
mistaken in saying, "This verb (civethan) still survives in our 'quote.' " The 
latter is from Latin quotus, what in number ; or quot, how many. 

109. Pilot. St. Peter, originally a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee (Matt. 
iv. 18-22 ; Luke v. 1-11) ; and here may be, as Masson thinks, 'occult ref- 
erence to the fact that Lycidas had perished at sea.' As the earthly head of 
the church, and the chief shepherd of the flock {John xxi. 15-17), St. Peter 
regrets the loss of King's services to the cause of pure religion, and is filled 
with a holy anger at the selfish hirelings that crowd into the ministry. 

110. Two massy keys. See Matt. xvi. 19. St. Peter has from very early 
times been represented as bearing ttoo keys ; but the idea of one being of gold 
and the other of iron is Milton's own. Dante in his Paradiso, V. 57, speaks 
of the two keys of Holy Church, — ' by either key, the yellow and the white ' ; 



LYGIDAS. 21 

The golden opes, the iron shuts amain — 

He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake : 

"How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 

Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake. 

Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold ! 115 

Of other care they little reckoning make 

Than how to scramble at the shearer's feast, 

And shove away the worthy bidden guest. 

Blind mouths ! that scarce themselves know how to hold 

A sheep-hook, or have learned aught else the least 120 

That to the faithful herdsman's art belongs! 

i. e. the silver key of Knowledge, and the golden key of Authority. So in 
Dante's Picrgatorio, IX. 118, the golden key is the confessor's authority ; the 
silver, his knowledge. See Fletcher's Purple Island (pub. in 1633), VII. 
61, 62. 

111. Amain (A.-S. inaegen, might), forcibly. For the prefix a, see note on 

* afield,' line 27. See also a, as a prefix, in Wedgwood's Diet, of Etymology. 

112. Mitred. Here Milton, with poetic reverence, assigns to St. Peter the 
mitre, which he afterwards scorned when worn by popes, bishops, and car- 
dinals. Bespake. Here used intransitively. Note that three complaints 
against some of the clergy follow : (1) selfishness and conniption, (2) igno- 
rance of doctrine and duty, (3) their Romanizing tendency. King seems to 
have been expected to enter the ministry. 

114. Enow, the old form, usually plural, of enough. Gothic ganohs, 
enough. Milton's MS. has anough. 

115. Climb. See the close of Milton's sonnet on Cromwell ; also Par. 
Lost, IV. 193 ; John x. 1, etc. The lines 113 to 131 are remarkable as an 

* outburst of that feeling about the state of the English Church tmder Laud's 
rule, which, four years afterwards (1641-42), found more direct and as vehe- 
ment expression in Milton's prose pamphlets.' " Note," says Masson, ''the 
stu.died contemptuousness of the phraseology throughout, — ' their bellies' 
sake,' 'shove away,' 'bKnd mouths' ! (a singularly violent figure, as if the 
men were mouths and nothing else) — and the raspy roughness of the sound in 
line 124, where 'scrannel' (for 'screeching,' 'ear-torturing') seems to be a 
word of Milton's own making. The ' rank mist ' and ' foul contagion ' are un- 
sound and imAvholesome doctrines." 

118. Worthy bidden guest. Matt. xxii. 3, 8, 9. 

120. Sheep-hook. This hook is fastened to a pole. With it the shepherd 
lays hold of the sheep which he may wish to catch. The * rod ' of Psalm 
xxiii. 4. 

121. Herdsman's. Herdman is the usual spelling in the Bible. Gen. 
xiii. 7. 



22 LYCIDAS. 

What recks it them ? What need they ? They are sped ; 
And, when they list, their lean and flashy songs 
Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw: 
The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed, 125 

But, sw^oUen with wind and the rank mist they draw, 
liot inwardly, and foul contagion spread; 
Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 

122. Are sped, are despatched, or quickly provided for. So in Shakes. 
Taming of Shreio, V. ii. 185, "We three are married, but you two are sped." 
The word when so used passively is usually in an unfavorable sense ; as in 
the Merchant of Venice, II. ix. 72, "So begone, sir ; you are sped." (A.-S. 
spedmi, to speed ; Old Eng. spedan., to prosper. ) Recks. This word is not 
often found impersonal. In Comus, 1. 404, we have, " Of night or loneliness, 
it recks me not." 

123. Flashy, insipid, vapid ; or, possibly, tinsel-like, showy. In Bacon's 
Essay on Studies we have, " Distilled books are like common distilled waters, 
flashy things." "When they list. The 'songs' — unsound instruction, poor 
stuff' at best — are doled out to suit the convenience of the pseudo-shepherds. 

124. Grate. They grate their songs ? or their songs grate ? So the infer- 
nal doors "grate harsh thunder." {Par. Lost, II. 881.) This line is like 
Virgil's ' Stridenti miserum stipida disperdere carmen,' to murder a sorry 
song on a squeaking straw pipe (Eclogue, III. 27). Scrannel is supposed to 
be related to scraiony. It seems to have been coined by Milton,, and to mean 
thin, meagre. But see Masson's views quoted in note to line 115. Possibly 
it is connected with cranny (Lat. crena ; Fr. cran ; provincial Ger. krinne, 
notch, fissure, cleft, crevice), and so may mean squeaking. (Morley derives 
it from A.-S. " scrincan, to shrink, past scranc, with diminutive suffix. In 
Lancashire a 'scrannel' is a lean, skinny person.") 

125. Are not fed. Similarly Spenser (Shepherd's Calendar, May Eclogue) 
complains of the ministers that spend their time in 'wanton merriment,' while 
"their flocks be unfed." See Milton's quotation of the passage in Animad- 
versions on the Remonstrant's Defence (1641) ; also see near the end of Mil- 
ton's Reason of Church Government (1641). 

126. Swollen with wind. Dante (Paradiso, XXIX.) says, 'Si che le pecn- 
relle, che 7ion sanno, toman dal pasco, pasciute di vento,' so that the lambs, 
which know not, come back from pasture fed upon the wind. Hamlet's " I 
eat the air" will be recalled (Ilam. III. ii, 99). Rank, strong, off"ensive. 

128. Grim wolf. Who is the 'grim wolf? 'Archbishop Laud,' some 
say. Others make it the wolf in sheep's clotliing, of Matt. vii. 15 ; others, 
the rapacious shepherd, of Acts xx. 29. Morley thinks it is ' the devil, great 
enemy of tlie Christian sheepfold.' Others, and among them Masson, " in- 
terpret the grim wolf to mean that system of perversion to Romanism, which 
seems to ha\e reached its height in or about the year 1637." Possibly here 



LYCIDAS. 23 

Daily devours apace, and nothing said. 

But that two-handed engine at the door 130 

Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more. 

Eeturn, Alpheus; the dread voice is past 
That shrunk thy streams : return, Sicilian Muse, 
And call the vales, and bid them hither cast 
Their bells and flowerets of a thousand hues. 135 

Ye valleys low^, where the mild whispers use 



is a remote allusion to the she-wolf that suckled Eomulus and Eemus. 
Privy paw, secret or stealthy paw. The alleged intriguing of the Jesuits ? 

129. Apace, speedily, fast. Nothing said. Does this mean that the un- 
faithful ministers did not preach ? or that they went over to Eome without 
evoking comment, the court and the clergy ignoring the fact ? 

130. But that two-handed engine. Either the axe of the Gospel (Matt. 
iii. 10; Luke iii. 9) ; or the axe of the executioner about to behead Laud ; or 
the executioner Death with his scjrthe; or the sword of the archaugel Micliacl 
alluded to in line 161, etc. (Par. Lost, VI. 251) ; or the two-edged sword of 
the Son of Man (Rev. i. 16 ; ii. 12, 16) ; or the two houses of Parliament ; 
or, according to Morley, " ' the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God ' 
(Ejphes. vi. 17) ; * two-handed,' because we lay hold of it by the Old Testament 
and the New." The usual explanation makes it the headsman's axe. This 
would seem, however, to be an afterthought. See a long and learned note on 
the line in Masson's Milton's Poet. Works, Vol. III. pp. 454-456. Jerraisi 
has no doiibt that it is ' the axe laid at the root of the tree.' At the door. 
Matt. xxiv. 33. 

131. Smite no more. Newton cites 1 Sam. xxvi. 8. 

132. Alpheus, the god of the river Alpheus in Arcadia. Enamored of Are- 
thusa, he pursued her underground (the river runs underground for a long 
distance) to Sicily, where he overtook her in the fountain called by her name 
in the island of Ortygia at the entrance of the harbor of Syracuse. See note 
on line 85. He and she are here supposed to inspire pastoral poets. The 
pastoral style, having been interrupted, is now resumed. 

133. Shrunk. As if the volume of the river were perceptibly diminished 
through sympathy with the shrinking fear felt by the river god ; "a recogni- 
tion," says Jerram, " of the superior power of Christianity over Paganism." 
A full stream indicated prosperity and joy. See Comus, 1. 924 to 929. Meta- 
phorical meaning of ' shrunk thy streams ' ? Sicilian Muse, Arethusa, or 
the muse that inspired Moschus and Theocritus, Sicilian poets. 

135. Bells, the cups or corollas of flowers. Ariel sings in Shakes. Temjjest, 
V. 89, " In a cowslip's bell I lie." 

136. Use, frequent, haunt, dwell. So in Faerie Queene, VI. Introd. st. 
2, line 17. 



24 LYCIDAS. 

Of shades, and wanton winds, and gushing brooks; 
On whose fresh lap the swart star sparely looks; 
Throw hither all your quaint enamelled eyes. 
That on the green turf suck the honeyed showers, 140 
And purple all the ground with vernal flowe:^. 

137. Of shades. Grammatical construction ? "Wanton. " Tlie epithet may- 
remind us of the mj'thological amours of the winds. " The word is from the 
negative wan, without (whence comes our wan, without color), and A.-S. teon 
(Ger. Ziehen) to lead ; hence it means without leadership or restraint. 

138. Swart star. ''The dog-star, Sirius, whose appearance above the hori- 
zon was supposed to be physically connected with the oppressive heats of 
summer, — whence our phrase ' the dog-days.' It is called 'swart' or 'swar- 
thy' from the effects of heat on the complexion." In Horace, Odes, III. xiii. 
9, we find flagrantis atrox hora Caniculce, the fierce season of the blazing 
dog-star. Possibly Milton means the sun, as Horace {Satires, I. 9, 73) has 
*sol niger,^ 'the sun that turns things black,' or 'the injurious svm.' "The 
flowers that the poet wants to be brought to him ai'e such as have grown in 
shady vales." Masson. Sparely, sparingly, seldom. Looks. Warton con- 
jectures 'that the astrological aspect of a star is here intended.' So 'dire- 
looking' in Arcddes, 1. 52. See Par. Lost, vi. 313. 

139. Quaint, here used, as often in Shakespeare, for fine, nice, neat, pretty; 
or in its usual Miltonic sense of curious, fantastic, as Jerram thinks. (Lat. 
comptus, adorned ; Old Fr. coint. But Wedgwood says, " Notwithstanding 
the singular agreement with Lat. comptus, trimmed, adorned, the word must 
be derived either from Lat. cognitus, known, or from Ger. kund, kundig, 
knovni, acquainted with.") Eyes. In Midsummer NighVs Dream, IV. i. 60, 
we have 'pretty flowerets' eyes.' So the daisy is the day's eye. Enam- 
elled, as if painted on enamel. What is enamel ? 

140. Honeyed. Milton very often makes adjectives of past participles. 

141. Purple. What is the subject nominative ? Purple, which usually is 
red tinged with blue, sometimes ' denotes any bright color, from a dazzling 
white to a deep red.' Horace, Odes, IV. i. 10 ; Virg. ^neid, IX. 349 ; Par. 
Lost, III. 364. Vernal flowers. It will be well in reading the next nine 
lines to observe what is commonly called 'the language of flowers.' In one 
of the elegies of Sir John Beaumont (1582 - 1628) is the following : — 

" Here fresh roses lie 
Whose ruddy blushes modest thoughts descry. 
The spotless lilies show his pure intent ; 
The flaming marigolds his zeal present ; 
The purple violets, his noble mind. 
Degenerate never from his princely kind ; 
And, last of all, the hyacinths we throw, 
On which are writ the letters of our woe." 



» 



LYCIDAS. 25 



Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, 

The tufted crow- toe, and pale jessamine, 

The white pink, and tlie pansy freaked with jet, 

142. Eathe (Ice. hradr^ quick ; Norse rad, hasty ; Dutch rad, nimble), 
early. Rather is the comparative of this old word, and means sooner, ear- 
lier. Here begins the famous flower passage, which the original manuscript 
shows to have been carefully and repeatedly revised. " Scott in his Critical 
Essays" complains that "too many flowers are specified, and spring flowers 
are injudiciously blended with summer ones." This last point resembles the 
old censure of Shakespeare for not observing the ' unities ' of time and place ! 
Primrose. Why primrose 'i Because, like Lycidas, it is prematurely cut 
off ; as Shakespeare says, * pale primroses, that die unmarried, ere they can 
behold bright Phoebus in his strength ' ? or better, perhaps, because of ' the 
modest nature of the flower, blooming in retired spots, and often fading un- 
noticed ' ? 

143. Tufted. " The crowfoot grows singly ; but as it divides into several 
parts, Milton was justified in his epithet." Keightley. Crow-toe, so called 
* from its claw -like spreading legumes,' says Prior. Popular Names of Brit- 
ish Plants. Why is this flower mentioned ? We perhaps gain light on 
this point from the original draft in Milton's handwriting among the Cam- 
bridge MSS. It reads, 

" Bring the rathe primrose that unwedded dies. 
Coloring the pale cheek of unenjoyed love ; 
And that sad flower that strove 
To write his own woes on the vermeil grain : 
Next add Narcissus that still weeps in vain." 

Is the crow-toe, then, 'that sad flower,' the 'sanguine flower inscribed with 
woe,' the purple hyacinth? There would be a peculiar appropriateness in 
this ; for Hyacinth, like Lycidas, met with an early and sudden death. Of 
the water crowfoot, however, it is remarked that, " when growing in swift- 
running water, the lower leaves may be compared to a tuft of bi'ight green 
hair waving to and fro in the current. " Maunder' s Treasury of Botany. Was 
Milton, then, thinking of the ' oozy locks ' of Lycidas, laved by ' the cruel, 
crawling foam ' beyond the 'sands o' Dee,' and asking himself, in the spirit 
of Charles Kingsley, " 0, is it weed, or fish, or floating hair" ? Pale. As if 
with sorrow and shadow ? The white-flowered jessannne is common in the 
South of Europe. Jessamine (Persian jasmin, fragrant). Why this flower? 
Because of its fragrance, like the memory of Lycidas ? Quarles (1592-1644) 
says in his Emblems, V. 2, " Above the rest, let Jesse's sovereign flower per- 
fume my qualming breast" ; playing upon the word jessamine. 

144. White pink. Wliy white ? Is it representative of the spotless purity 
of Lycidas ? Pink (Fr. pince, a tip or thin point). ' Probably from the 
sharp-pointed leaves set in pairs upon the stalk like pincers.' Wedgtoood. 
Before Milton's day, the pink was the emblem of perfection. Thus in Shakes. 



26 LYCIDAS. 

The glowing violet, 145 

The musk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine; 

Romeo and Jul., "1 am the very pink of courtesy " ; and colloquially it is 
still so used to denote the acme of excellence. Pansy (Fr. x><^nsee, thought ; 
Lat. pensao-e, to weigh, ponder). The pansy, as its name indicates, has ' from 
time whereof the memory of man runneth not to the contrary,' typified 
thought. Freaked (0. Eng. freken, frecken, to spot, freckle ? or Ital. fre- 
gare, to streak ; frego, a dash, stroke?), variegated, flecked. There are many 
varieties of pansy, or heart's-ease. Why does Milton select that Avliich is 
* freaked with jet' ? Evidently because of its 'sad embroidery,' which adds 
a mournful tinge to the sweet thoughtfulness of the flower. The savor of 
grief is in those freaks of jet; as the fairy in Midsummer NighVs Dream 
says of the spots in the gold coats of the cowslip. 



In those freckles live their 



savors. 



Spenser {Faerie Queene, III. xi. 37) represents Hyacinth as changed into a 
pansy. 

145. Violet. Modest, yet glowing as with the warmth of immortal life. 

146. Musk-rose. Of course the rose, queen of flowers, highest emblem of 
beauty, must not be wanting. But wliy single out the musk-rose ? Because 
of its odor, outlasting all others, and fitly symbolizing the enduring fragrance 
of the memory of Lycidas ? Woodbine. This is the honeysuckle, which Keats 
characterizes as 'of velvet leaves and bugle bloom divine,' and which Milton 
elsewhere calls 'the twisted eglantine' {V Allegro, 48). The Treasury of Bot- 
any {Lindley and Moore, Maunder's ed.) says : "No British shrub claims our 
favorable notice so early in the season as the honeysuckle {caprifolium j^ericly- 
menum) ; for even before the frosts of January have attained their greatest 
intensity, we may discover in the sheltered wood or hedge-bank its wiry stem 
throwing out tufts of tender green leaves from the extremity of every twig. 
Later in the season it ... . displays its numerous clusters of trumpet-shaped 
cream-colored flowers [the ' bugle bloom ' of Keats] tinged with crimson, and 
shedding a perfume which, in sweetness, is surpassed by no other British plant. 
.... In October, the woodbine endeavors to impart a grace to the fading 
year by producing a new crop of flowers, which, though not so luxuriant nor 
so numerous as the first, are quite as fragrant. Clusters of flowers and of ripe 
berries may then be found on the same twig, uniting autumn with sunmier as 
the early foliage united winter with spring." Well-attired. {Attire is from 
the Old French atour, attour, a French hood, or head-dress for a woman. 
Wedgwood. This original meaning is seen in 'attired,' Levit. xvi. 4, and in 
'tired,' 2 Kings ix. 30 ; also in Shakespeare's fifty-third Sonnet, Much Ado 
About Nothing, III. iv. 13, and repeatedly elsewhere.) In the early promise 
of the woodbine, its seeming lofty aspiration, its wondrous fragrance, its 
aff'ectionate twining, or in its rich and strange ' attire ' of beautiful blossoms 
mingled sometimes with bright crimson berries, — 'the virgin crimson of mod- 
esty,' as Shakespeare has it, —can we see why Milton chose this flower? 



I 



LYCIDAS. 27 



With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, 

And eveiy flower that sad embroidery wears : 

Bid amaranthus all his beauty shed, 

And daffadillies fill their cup with tears, 150 

147. Cowslips. Marsh-marigolds? These are among the early spring 
flowers in the watery meadows. The flowers are said to be narcotic. See 
the characterization of the marigold in the long quotation from Shakespeare, 
infra (on line 150). But is not Milton's cowslip the primula veris, a species 
of primrose, a drooping flower ? It bears iimbels of small yellow blossoms, 
tinged with orange, and rising from a cluster of downy leaves. It has little 
or no resemblance to the caltha palustris, marsh-marigold, or cowslip of New 
England. See Henry V., V. ii. 49, where Shakespeare speaks of the 'freckled 
cowslip ' ; and Midsummer NighVs Dream, II. i, 13, wliere, in speaking of 
the cowslip, he says, ' In those freckles live their savors.' Note on line 144. 
{Cowslip is "divided cow-slip, not cows-lip ; as shown by the Old Eng. oxan- 
slippa^ oxlip, where the an is the sign of the genitive case. The meaning of 
slip is uncertain." Stevens and Morris.) 

148. Sad embroidery. The first draft had 'sorrow's livery' ; the second, 
' sad escutcheon.' Which is the best expression of the three ? Why ? Em- 
broidery. This suggests Chaucer's description of the young Squire, — 

" Emhrouded was he as it were a mead 
All full of freshe floures white and red." 

149. Amaranthus (Gr. dfidpavros, unfading ; fr. d, witliout, and /xapatveip, 
to wither, decay ; ' so called because its flowers, when cropped, do not soon 
wither ' ) . It has ' green, purplish, or crimson flowers, in large spiked clus- 
ters. ' ' Love-lies-bleeding ' is a species of it. Amaranth is the emblem of 
immortality. See the exquisite lines in Par. Lost, III. 353 - 359. 

150. DaiFadillies (Gr. dacpodeXos ; Fr. Jleur d'as2Jhodele). This floAver is 
the narcissus ? In the original draft Milton has the line, " Next add Nar- 
cissus that still weeps in vain." The story of Narcissus, dying of love and 
changed into the beautiful flower, is told in Ovid's Metamorphoses. Narcis- 
sus was a paragon of beauty, and is so spoken of in Shakes. Antony and Cleo- 
patra, II. V. 96 ; PMpe of Lucrece, 265 ; Milton's Comics, 237. Narcissus is 
said to be from vapKaoo, to become n\imb, as the odor of the flower produced 
torpidity. Plutarch says that ''those who are numbed with death should 
very fittingly be crowned with a benumbing flower." 

In the light of the foregoing explanations, the student will be able to 
judge of the accuracy and fairness of Ruskin's criticism of this passage (lines 
142-150). After distinguishing between 'fancy ' and ' imagination,' by say- 
ing that "fancy sees the outside, and is able to give a portrait of the outside, 
clear, brilliant, and full of detail" ; that "the imagination sees the heart 
and inner nature, and makes them felt, but is often obscure, mysterious, and 
interrupted, in its giving of outer detail," Huskin proceeds to illustrate. 



28 LYCIDAS. 

To strew the laureate hearse where Lycid lies. 151 

For so, to interpose a little ease, 

" Compare," he says, ** Milton's flowers in Lycidas with Perdita's. In Mil- 
ton it happens, I think, generally, and in the case before us most certainly, 
that the imagination is mixed and broken with fancy, and so the strength of 
the imagery is part of iron and part of clay : — 

'Bring the rathe primrose that forsaken dies, (Imagination.) 
The tufted crow-toe, and pale jessamine, (Nugatory.) 
The white pink, and the pansy freaked with jet, (Fancy.) 
The glowing violet, (Imagination.) 

The miisk-rose, and the well-attired woodbine, (Fancy, vulgar.) 
With cowslips wan that hang the pensive head, (Imagination.) 
And every flower that sad embroidery wears.' (Mixed.) 

"Then hear Perdita : ' Proserpina,' etc. [See the quotation below from 
Winter's Tale.] 

"Observe how the imagination in these last lines [Perdita's] goes into tlie 
very inmost soul of every flower, after having touched them all at first with 
that heavenly timidness, the shadow of Proserpine's, and gilded them with 
celestial gathering ; and never stops on their spots, or their bodily shape, 
while Milton sticks in the stains upon them, and puts us off with that unhappy 
freak of jet in the very flower that without this bit of paper-staining would 
have been the most precious to us of all. * There is pansies, that 's for 
thoughts.' " Kuskin's Modern Painters, Part III. Vol. II. chap. iii. pp. 164, 
165 (New York, Wiley & Son, 1871). Is the great art-critic just in his com- 
parison of the consciously immature pastoral poet of twenty-eight or twenty- 
nine with the veteran dramatist of forty-seven ? It may aid in the decision of 
this question, if we examine the whole flower passage, of which Ruskin gives 
the ten lines referred to above, beginning ' Proserpina.* The scene is at a 
sheep-shearing, and Perdita is ' mistress o' the feast.' 

" Reverend sir, 
For you there 's rosemary and rue ; these keep 
Seeming and savor all the winter long. 
.... Sir, the year growing ancient, — 
Not yet on summer's death, nor on the birth 
Of trembling winter, — the fairest flowers o' the season 
Are our carnations and streaked gillyvors, 
Which some call Nature's bastards, .... and I care not 

To get slips of them 

.... Here 's flowers for you, 
Hot lavender, mints, savory, marjoram ; 
The marigold, that goes to bed wi' the sun 
And with him rises weejiing : these are flowers 
Of middle summer, and I think they are given 



LYCIDAS. 29 

Let our frail thoughts dally with false surmise. 153 

Ay me ! whilst thee the shores and sounding seas 

To men of middle age 

.... Now, my fairest friend, 

I would I had some flowers o' the spring that might 

Become your time of day ; — and yours, and yours, 

That wear upon your virgin branches yet 

Your maidenhoods growing. O Proserpina, 

For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou lett'st fall 

From Dis's wagon ! dafi'odils, 

Tliat come before the swallow dares, and take 

The winds of March with beauty ; violets dim, 

But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes, 

Or Cytherea's breath ; pale primroses. 

That die unmarried, ere they can behold 

Bright Phoebus in his strength, — a malady 

Most incident to maids ; bold oxlips and 

The crown imperial ; lilies of all kinds. 

The flower-de-luce being one ! 0, these I lack, 

To make you garlands of ; and my sweet friend, 

To strew him o'er and o'er." 

Winter's Tale, IV, iii. 

Milton evidently had this passage in his mind ; but perhaps the nearest par- 
allel passage is in Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar, April : — 

*' Bring hither the pink and purple columbine, with gilliflowers ; 
Bring coronations, and sops-iu-wine [carnations and pinks], 

Worn of paramours [lovers] : 
Strow me the ground with daffadowndillies. 

And cowslips and kingcups and loved lilies [kingcups = crow-toes] : 
The pretty paunce [pansy] 

And the chevisaunce [achievement, perhaps here a flower] 
Shall match with the fair flower-delice " [flower-de-luce ; Fr. fleur-de-lis, 
flower of lily, the white lily]. 

151. Laureate, laurelled, 'having the poet's laurel on it.* What is a poet- 
laureate ? Hearse. Coffin ? So it seems to be in Milton's Epitaph on the 
Marchioness of Winchester, 1. 58. Dean Stanley, in his Historical Memo- 
rials of Westminster Abbey, says, "The hearse was a platform, decorated 
with black hangings, and containing an effigy of the deceased. Laudatory 
verses were attached to it with pins, wax. or paste. " (The history of ' hearse ' 
illustrates the curious changes of meaning whicli words sometimes undergo : 
Gr. apTT, to seize hastily, snatch and carry away ; whence dpira^, robbing, 
rapacious ; also a grapple, or grajjpling-iron, used in sea-fights ; Lat. hirpex, 
or irpex, a large rake with iron teeth used for the same purposes as our har- 



30 LYCIDAS. 

Wasli far away, where'er thy bones are hurled; 155 

Whether beyond the stormy Hebrides, 

Where thou perhaps under the whelming tide 

Visit'st the bottom of the monstrous world ; 

Or whether thou to our moist vows denied, 

Sleep'st by the fable of Bellerus old, 160 



row, erpice being still the Italian for harrow ; Low Lat. hcrcia ; Old. Fr. 
herce, or herche, a triangular framework of iron in the foi-ni of a harrow, 
used for holding candles at funerals and church ceremonies, and placed at the 
head of graves and cenotaphs. Afterwards the word herce, or hers, came to 
signify the whole funeral obsequies ; also the cenotaph, the grave, the coffin, 
the dead body ; or any framework, platform, or canopy erected beside or over 
the tomb ; lastly, hearse, the carriage in which the coffin is conve} ed. ) Ly- 
cid. " The older poets were fond of shortening classical names thus." 

153. False surmise, the false supposition in which, for the sake of the 
momentary comfort it aflFords, we vainly indulge, that thy loved form is here 
where we can honor it ? Frail. This word is used apologetically. Dally, 
play, trifle. 

154. See note line m. The student will not fail to notice the beauty of 
this outbreaking of regret that the 'surmise 'is but a transient drejfm. The 
shores — wash, etc. ''This expression, though strange, is not the result of 
oversight, since Milton deliberately substituted ' shoars ' for ' floods ' in his 
MS. The obvious meaning is that the corpse visited different parts of the 
coast in its wanderings, and was not out at sea all the time. The word shore 
does, however, literally mean 'that which divides the water from the land,' 
and therefore includes the portion sometimes covered by the tide." Jerram. 

155. Far away, at a great distance ? or to it ? 

156. Hebrides. Western Islands. These islands, about 200 in number, are 
on the west coast of Scotland. Why are they ' stormy' ? Examine, for the 
localities in this passage, a good map showing the British islands and the west 
coast of Europe. 

157. ■Whelming. The first draft has ' humming,' evidently from Shakes. 
Pericles, III. i. 64, " And humming water must o'erwhelm thy corpse." 

158. Monstrous, abounding in monsters. So Horace, Odes, I. 3. 18, and 
Virgil, yEneid, VI. 729. Homer's Odyssey, III. 158, has fieyaKifrea Trdvrov, 
the deep abounding in sea-monsters. 

159. Moist vows. Tearful prayers ? protestations of affection ? 

160. Bellerus. Milton first wrote the word Corineus, but substituted Bel- 
lerus, coining it from Belerium or (as in Ptolemy) Bolerium, Land's End. 
" It has been supposed that Milton, desiring a legendary namefather for the 
special bit of Cornwall called Bellerium by the Romans, took the liberty of 
adding such an imaginary personage to the retinue of tlie great giant-killing 
Corineus." Masson. See Milton's History of ErKjland for the story of the 



LYCIBAS. 31 

Where the great vision of the guarded mount 
Looks toward iSTamancos, and Bayona's hold : 
Look homeward, Angel, now, and melt with ruth; 
And, O ye dolphins, waft the hapless youth. 

Trojan Corineus, Brutus, etc. Fable. The place fabled to have been the 
liaunt of Bellerus. Drayton's Poly-Olhion (1st song) says that Cornwall was 
named after Corineus to commemorate his victory over Gogmagog, a Cornish 
giant. See a good map of the west coast of Europe. 

161. Vision, the apparition of the Archangel Michael, which is said to 
have been seen by some hermits centuries ago. A craggy seat, known as 'St. 
Michael's chair,' on the steep rock called St. Michael's Mount, and about 200 
feet liigh, overhangs the sea in Mount's Bay, near Penzance, and is much vis- 
ited by tourists. The rock is pyi'amidal in form, encompassed by the sea at 
liigh tide, and surmounted by several old buildings. One of these is a castle, 
s'lill inhabited at times ; and about this castle are traced the remains of a yet 
more ancient stronghold, ftnce occupied by the Normans, There was a mon- 
astery here of Benedictine monks, founded by Edward the Confessor; also a 
Ciiapel said to have been built in the fifth century. The spot has long been 
an object of superstitious reverence. ''The so-called chair is a fragment of 
the lantern of the monastery," says E. C. Browne, and he adds that, "to 
scramble around the pinnacle on which it is placed is a dangerous exploit, 
and is traditionally rewarded with marital supremacy." Clarendon Press edi- 
tion. See note in Masson, pp. 460, 461. Guarded mount. How guarded t 
"What of the rhyme here ? 

162. Namancos. In Mercator's Atlas of 1623 and 1636, Namancos is set 
down as a town in the province of Galicia, near Cape Finisterre and a little 
to the east, and Bayona is a city on the west coast of that province, some 
distance to the south. Masson characterizes as nonsensical the notion once 
entertained that by Bayona Milton meant Bayonne in southwestern France, 
and by Namancos the ancient Numantia. He shows that there was an old 
traditionary belief that Cape Finisterre and its vicinity could be seen from 
Cornwall, and vice versa. Hold, stronghold, fastness ; as repeatedly in 
Shakespeare ; e. g. in Cyvibeline, III. vi. IS, '"Tis some savage hold." 

163. Angel. The critics generally, Warton, Masson, R C. Browne, Ste- 
vens, Morris, and the rest, make this an apostrophe to the 'great vision,' the 
Archangel Michael ; " Look no longer seaward to Namancos and Bayona's 
hold : . . . . look homeward to your own coast now, and view with pity the 
shipwrecked Lycidas." But Jerram, on the contrary, argues that St. Michael's 
apparition is merely introduced parenthetically, as part of a local description, 
and never directly addressed. It is, according to him, the spirit of Lycidas, 
now an angel, that is invoked. Rutll (Old Eng. lireoxoan ; Ger. reuen, to sor- 
row), sorrow, pity. 

164. Dolphins. This fish, remarkable for its SAviftness and its beautiful 
brilliant colors, has been a favorite Avith poets ever since it saA'ed the life of 



32 LYCIDAS. 

Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no more; 165 
Tor Lycidas your sorrow is not dead, 
Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor. 
So sinks the day-star in the ocean bed; 
And yet anon repairs his drooping head, 

the sweet singer Arion. When the rude sailors coveted his treasures and 
threw him overboard on his way from Sicily to Corinth, the song-loving dol- 
phins assembled around the vessel, and one of them 

' him bore 
Through the -^gean seas from pirates' view.' 

Spenser, Faerie Queene, IV. xi. 23. Somewhat similar is the story of Palae- 
mon and the dolphin in Pausanias ; and of the boy and dolphin in Gellius 
quoted from Apion. Pliny describes the dolphin as an animal ' most friendly 
to man.' Liddell and Scott in their Greek Lexicon describe the dolphin (Gr. 
deXcpis) as ' a small species of whale, which played or tumbled before storms 
as if to warn seamen, and so was counted the friend of men ' ; hence the story 
of Ariou. The 'curving back,' as Ovid calls it [Fasti, II. line 113), is sup- 
posed by the sailors to have suggested the idea of carrying burdens. See 
Shakes. Midsummer NighVs Dream, II. i, 150, and elsewhere. See Class. 
Diet. 

165. "Weep no more. This transition is somewhat like that near the close 
of Spenser's Shepherd's Calendar for N'ovember, but it is by no means an imi- 
tation. The Clarendon Press edition says approvingly, " Keightley thus ac- 
centuates, — 

' Weep no more, woful shepherds, weep no m6re,* 
as also the 

' Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more ' 

of Shakespeare, and supports his view by quoting from classic and from Eng- 
lish, German, and Italian writers, instances of repeated phrase with varied 
accent " ! Mr. Keightley has put himself to needless trouble. As if it were 
necessary to accent every second syllable ! Have critics no ears ! 

166. Sorrow, the object of your sorrow. 

167. Watery floor. So Dante, Purgatorio, Canto II. 1. 15, ' sovra 'I suol, 
marino,' upon the ocean floor. 

168. Day-star, the sun, called the 'diurnal star' in Par. Lost,X. 1069. 
So Pindar in his first Olympian Ode has, " Seek no bright star during the 
day, in the desert air, more genial than the sun." Shakespeare calls the moon 
Hhe watery star.' Winter's Tale. I. ii. 1. Jerram thinks the evening star is 
referred to. See his note. Dwell a moment on the exquisite beauty of the 
simile and the music of these lines. 

169. Repairs (Lat. re-parare, to prepare again ; Fr. rSparer), refreshes, re- 
stores to a good state. In Lydgate's Troy we find, " Long ere Titan [i. e. 
the sun] gau make his repaire." Horace, Odes, IV. vii. 13, has " damna 



LYCIDAS. 33 

And tricks his beams, and with new-spangled ore 170 

Flames in the forehead of the morning sky : 

So Lycidas sunk low, but mounted high. 

Through the dear might of him that walked the waves ; 

"Where, other groves and other streams along. 

With nectar pure his oozy locks he laves, 175 

And hears the unexpressive nuptial song, 

tamen reparant coelestia lunge," the swift moons repair their wanings in the 
skies. Drooping. Why drooping ? 

170. Tricks (Welsh treciavj, to furnish ; or, better, from Dutch trek, a 
draught ; pull ; deceit ; feature ; whence, perhaps, though Wedgwood doubts 
it, comes Fr. tricher^ to cheat ; Ital. treccare), dresses, sets off. In II Pen- 
seroso, lines 123, 124, we have, — 

' Not tricked and frounced as she was wont 
With the Attic boy to hunt.' 

"Tricked," says Dyce, "is properly an heraldic term = blazoned." Span- 
gled (Gaelic spang, a shining metal plate), Milton often uses this word ; but, 
like tinsel, it 'has lost somewhat of dignity.' See Trench {Stuchj of Words, 
and English Past and Present). Ore. In Shakespeare (as in Hamlet, IV. 
i. 24, 25, 'like some ore among a mineral of metals base') we have 'ore' 
meaning gold, or golden splendor. ' Ore ' would seem to be more appropriate 
to the sun than to a star. 

171. Forehead. In the Puritan Sylvester's translation of the Divine Weeks 
and Works of the Protestant Du Bartas, a favorite book of Milton's, we find 
the line, — 

* Oft seen in forehead of the frowning skies.' 

173. That walked the waves. Matt. xiv. 25, 26 ; Mark vi. 48, 49. The 
student will not fail to observe the beautiful appropriateness of this allusion 
to Christ's power over the waters. 

174. Other groves and streams than those which he used to frequent on 
earth. Along = beside, 'without the usual idea of motion.' Jerram. 

175. Nectar, the drmk of the gods. " It was also used by way of ablution 
to preserve immortality." Laves. So the ' aged Nereus ' 'reared the lank 
head ' of the drowned Sabrina, 

" And gave her to his daughters to imbathe 

In nectared lavers." 

Comus, 836, 837. 

Oozy (A.-S. wos, juice ; wosig, juicy ; Provincial Eng. ouse, the liquor in a 
tanner's vat). 

176. Unexpressive, inexpressible, ineffably sweet. So ShaJtespeare has 
nhe fair, the chaste, and unexpressive she.' As You Like It, III. ii. 10. So 



34 LYCIDAS. 

In the blest kingdoms meek of joy and love. 

There entertain him all the saints above, 

In solemn troops and sweet societies, 

That sing, and singing in their glory move, 180 

And wipe the tears forever from his eyes. 

Now, Lycidas, the shepherds weep no more; 

Henceforth thou art the Genius of the shore, 

In thy large recompense, and shalt be good 

To all that wander in that perilous flood. 185 

,' Thus sang the uncouth swain to the oaks and rills, 



Milton's Ode on the Nativity, 1. 116. Nuptial song, the song at ' tlie mar- 
riage Slipper of tlie Lamb.' Rev. xiv. 3 ; xix. 7, 9 ; xxi. 9. 

177. This line, omitted in the edition of 1638, is inserted in Milton's hand- 
writing in his own copy, which is preserved at Cambridge. Meek, peaccfid. 
The epithet suggests the deeply significant words, ' kingdom and patience of 
Jesus Christ.' Rev. i. 9. 

180. Sing. Rev. v. 9 ; xv. 3 ; Par. Lost, III. 344 to 417. 

181. "Wipe the tears forever from Ms eyes. Isa. xxv. 8, "The Lord 
God will wipe away tears from off all faces." Rev. vii. 17 ; xxi. 4. 

183. Genius of the shore. The sainted Lycidas becomes a numeji, or 
genius loci, like the dead Daphnis in Virgil {Eclogue, V. 64, 65). Very simi- 
lar is a passage in the Italian pastoral poet Sannazaro, who represents a 
drowned man as thus addressed by his moxiruing friends : — 

" A spice nos, raitisque veni, tu numen aquarum 
Semper eris, semper Isetum piscantibus omen," 

look favoringly upon us and gently come; thou shalt be the guardian deity 
of the waters, omen ever gladdening to fishermen. The introduction of tliis 
conception of the genius loci marks 'a return to the pastoral form' of the 
poem. Is it a poetic variation of the idea in Hebrews i. 14 ? 

184. In thy large recompense, tlie ample requital for all thy sufferings. 
Shalt be good. The passage referred to in Virgil in the preceding line has, 
" Sis bonus felixque tuis," mayst thou be good and propitious to thy 
own. 

185. Perilous. The critics will have it that this Avord is everjovhere a dis- 
syllable in Milton, except Par. Lost, II. 420. But is it necessary so to regard 
it ? May not an anapest be allowed ? 

186. Thus sang, etc. "The shepherd elegiast," says Scott (Critical Es- 
says), " who has not yet been formally introduced, is now set before us 
among his oaks and rills." It has been remarked that the last eight lines of 
tlie ]:)oeni foini a perfect stanza in ottuva rima. Uncouth (A.-S, un, not, 



LYCIDAS. 35 

While the still morn went out with sandals gray; 
He touched the tender stops of various quills, 
With eager thought warbling his Doric lay: 
And now the sun had stretched out all the hills, 190 



cudh, known, from cunnan, to know), unknown. So most of tlie critics inter- 
pret the word in this line, as being a natural expression of a young man look- 
ing forward to future fame. But perhaps it should have its modern sense, 
and be interpreted as a modest acknowledgment of inxdeness or awkwardness. 
The swain, of course, is Milton, who now speaks in his own character. 

187. While the still morn went out with sandals gray. 'Alluding,' 
say Stevens and Morris, 'to the gray appearance of the sky just before sun- 
rise.' See Par. Regained, IV. 426, 427. May it mean the gray of the clouds 
and sky when morning is just vanishing later in the day ? I am not aware 
that the exquisite beauty of this line lias been commented upon. It is equal 
to the famous verses of Shakespeare, which Richard Grant White quotes to 
prove the superiority of Shakespeare's imagination over Milton's, — 

"But look, the morn in russet mantle clad 
Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastern hill " ; 

for this line of Milton's, more musical than these of Shakespeare, is also more 
condensed ; and then it adds the charm of stillness. 

188. Stops, vent-holes of a flute or pipe. So in Shakes. 2 Henry IV., In- 
duction, 17 ; Hamlet, III. ii. 76, 376, 381. Quills (Lat. calamus, reed, or 
caulis, a stalk ; Ger. Mel), originally reed-pipes, the tubes of wmd instru- 
ments. Spenser speaks of the ' homely shepherd's quill.' Johnson thought 
it the plectrum, and quoted Dryden's Virgil, ^neid, VI. 646, "His quill 
strikes seven notes " : but this meaning does not so well suit this passage. 
The various quills are changes of mood and metre — ' the varied strains of 
the elegy' or themes of the poem (at lines 76, 88, 113, 132, 165). "This 
almost amounts to a recognition on the part of the poet of the irregularity of 
style, the mixture of different and even opposing themes." Jerram. 

189. Eager, earnest, intent, keen. Doric lay (the Acjpls doidd of the Greek 
pastoral poet Moschus, Avho flonrished in Syracuse about 270 B. c, and who 
composed a beautiful elegy on his fellow-poet Bion), pastoral song. Theo- 
critus, too, was a native of the Dorian colony at Syracuse. Doric, pertaining 
to the Dorians, a people of ancient Greece. In music, the Doric was severe, 
austere, or grave ; the Lydian was soft, sweet, or pathetic ; the Phrygian, 
sprightly, animated ; the Ionic, airy, fanciful. 

190. Stretched out. Stretched them out into shadow ? In the last line 
of Virgil's first Eclogue we find, " Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus um- 
brce,'' and larger shadows fall from the lofty mountains. Do these lines 
mean that the poet was engaged from dawn till sunset in composing this 
lay? 



3G LYCIDAS. 

And now was dropped into tlie western bay. 
At last he rose, and twitched his mantle blue 
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new. 



1 



191. At the end of Spenser's Pastoral jEglogue upon the Death of Sir 
Philip Sidney, we have the line, — 

" The sun, lo ! hastened hath his face to steep 
In western waves," 

as a reason for ceasing to sing. 

192. He. The ' swain.' Twitched, caught up or snatched. Keightley 
says, ' drew tightly about him. on account of the chilliness of the evening,' 
This picturesque ending expresses haste, as if conscious that in his absorption 
in ' eager thought ' he had tarried too long. Mantle blue. R. C. Browne 
in his notes hints that the mantle was, like that of Hudibras, ' Presbyterian 
true blue ! ' 

193. In Fletcher's Purple Island (1633) occurs the line, — 

*' To-morrow shall ye feast in pastures new." 

Says Masson, " This is a parting intimation that the imaginary shepherd is 
Milton himself, and that the poem is a tribute to his dead friend rendered 
passingly in the midst of other occupations." "It is better," says Jerrani, 
"to refer these words to the projected Italian tour, with which his mind 
must now have been occupied, than to any political intentions at this time." 



For an interesting critical examination and exposition of lines l08 - 129, 
see Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies, pp. 26-34. (Wiley and Son, N. Y., 1S6G.) 



INDEX OF WORDS EXPLAINED. 



a- (prefix), 10. 
abhorred shears, 16. 
afield, 10. 
Aganippe, 8. 
along, 3-3. 
Alpheus, 23. 
amain, 21. 
amaranthus, 27. 
Amaryllis, 15. 
angel, 31. 
apace, 23. 
are not fed, 22. 
Arethuse, 17. 
at the door, 23. 
ay me ! 14. 

Bark, 19. 

battening, Iv^. 

Bayona, 31. 

BeUerus, 30. 

bells, 23. 

berries, 6. 

bespake, 21. 

bidden guest, 21. 

bier, 8. 

blaze, 16. 

bonnet sedge, 19. 

boots, 15. 

built in the eclipse, 19. 

Camus, 19. 

canker, 12. 

clear, 15. 

climb into the fold, 21. 

compels, /or compel, 7. 

constraint, 7. 

cowslips, 27. 

coy, 9. 

crow-toe, 25. 

crude, 6. 

DafiFadillies, 27. 
daUy, 30. 



Damoetas, 11. 
day-star, 32. 
dear, 7. 
Deva, 13 
dolphins, 31. 
doomed, 18. 
Doric, 35. 
drooping, 32. 
Druids, 13. 

Eager, 35. 

echoes, 12. 

embroidery, 27. 

enamelled, 24. 

engine, 23. 

enow, 21. 

eyelids of the morning, 10. 

eyes, 24. 

Fable(ofEelleru.^), 31. 

false surmise, 30. 

fauns, 11. 

felon, 18. 

flashy, 22. 

foil, 17. 

fondly, 14. 

footing slow, 19. 

forehead, 33. 

Fury, 16. 

Gadding, 12. 

Genius of the shore, 34. 

grate, 22. 

gray -fly, 10. 

graze, 12. 

grim wolf, 22. 

guarded mount, 31. 

guerdon, 16. 

Harsh and crude, 6. 
hearse, 29. 



Hebrides, .30. 
Hebrus, 14. 
herald, 18. 
herdsman's, 21. 
higher mood , 18. 
Hippotades, 18. 
his, 19. 
hold, 31. 
honeyed, 24- 
Hyacinth, 20. 

Inwrought, 20. 

Jessamine, 25. 

Keys, 20. 
King, Edward, 5 
knew to sing, 8. 

Last infirmity, 16. 
lastly, 17. 
laureate, 29. 
laurels, 5. 
laTes, 33. 
lawns, 9. 
learned friend, 5. 
Lesbian, 14 
level brine, 19. 
looks, 24. 
Lycid, 30. 
Lycidas, 7. 

Mantle blue, 36. 
mantle hairy, 19. 
meed, 17. 
meek, 34. 
mellowing year, 6 
melodious tear, 8. 
Mincius, 17. 
mitred, 21. 
moist vows, 30. 
Mona, 13. ' 



38 



INDEX OF WORDS EXPLAINED. 



monody, 5. 


recks, 22. 


swart star, 24. 


monstrous, 30. 


recompense, 34. 


swollen with wind, 22. 


Muses, 8, 14. 


reft, 20. 




musk-rose, 26. 


repairs, 32. 


Taint-worm, 12. 


Namancos, 31. 
Neaera, 15. 
nectar, 33. 
nothing said, 23. 
nuptial song, 34. 


rhime, 8. 
rigged, 19. 


tempered, 11. 

tend the homely, etc., 15 


rime, 8. 


thankless Muse, 15. 


rout, 14. 

rugged wings, 18. 

ruth, 31. 


think to burst out, 16. 
tricks, 33. 
tufted, 25. 


nymphs, 13. 




twitched, 36. 


Oat, 18. 


Sad embroidery, 27. 


two-handed engine, 23. 


oaten flute, 11. 


sandals gray, 36. 




once more, 6. 


sanguine flower, 20. 


Uncessant, 15. 


oozy, 33. 


satyrs, 11. 


uncouth, 34. 


Orpheus, 14. 


scrannel, 22. 


unexpressive, 33. 




sere, 6. 


use, 15. 


Pale jessamine, 25. 


Shalt be good, 34. 




Panope, 19. 


shatter, 6. 


Vernal flowers, 24. 


pansy, 26 


sheep-hook, 21. 


violet, 26. 


f)arching, 8. 


shroud, 9. 


vision, 31. 


perilous, 34. 


shrunk, 23. 




Phoebus, 16. 


Sicilian Muse, 23. 


Walked the waves, 33. 


pilot of the Galilean lake, 20. 


sleek, 19. 


wanton, 24. 


pink, 25. 


slighted shepherd's trade, 15. 


wardrobe, 13. 


plea, 18. 


slits, 16. 


watery floor, 32. 


pledge, 20. 


sloped, 11. 


weanling, 12. 


position of noun, 7. 
primrose, 25- 


smite no more, 23. 
smooth sliding, 17. 
sorrow, 32 


weep no more, 32. 
well-attired, 26. 
welter, 8. 


privy paw, 23. 
pure eyes, 17. 
purple, 24. 


sparely, 24. 
sped, 22. 
spirit, 15. 


westering, 11. 
what time, 10. 
whelming, 30. 


Quaint, 24. 


spur, 15. 


white pink, 26- 


quills, 35. 


steep, 13. 


wings, 18. 


quoth, 20. 


stops, 35. 


wipe the tears, 34. 




strictly meditate, 15. 


witness, 17. 


Rank, 22. 


string, 8. 


wolf, 22. 


rathe, 25. 


swain, 18. 


woodbine, 26. 



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